The Oncoming Storm
by disneylover3212008
Summary: Taking a job where the former CSI was struck by lightning might not be ideal, but Lindsey Porter was thrilled. And capable of doing a damn good job. Ask Singh. Too bad Barry Allen had to go and wake up from his coma to ruin it, but Lindsey isn't going down without a fight. Though she may live to regret it with the chaos she soon finds herself in thanks to her stupid new "partner".
1. Prologue

_The Brewing Storm_

 **Prologue**

"I still don't see the difference."

I let out the type of groan at him that only a younger sister could get away with, throwing both outfits onto the bed carelessly. "You. Are. Impossible." I glared at my brother from where he was perched at the chair he had dragged into the room just for the occasion when he had vowed to be of some use to me in this dilemma. Unfortunately, Jenny had already left for her job at the morgue and Aggie was probably late getting ready for school. Thus I was stuck with the man who was unable to tell the difference between red and green. I turned back to the small closet of the guest room, trying to find anything else that could work.

"I'm just being honest Lin," Thomas answered, arms probably crossed and leaning back in the chair dangerously. It was an annoying habit but one our parents had never quite been able to purge from him. Thomas would always just skirt the line of danger however he could, even in his sitting habits. "I don't know what you were expecting… asking your colorblind brother for wardrobe advice."

"You volunteered," I reminded him sharply, turning on the heels of my feet to glare at him once more. My look bounced right off though. Thomas had grown up with enough of my tantrums and looks to become immune, though consider himself lucky he had been off at college during the teenage years. I might have turned the place into a constant war zone when it came to bickering about curfews and the boys I had been unlucky enough to date.

I had mellowed out in my old age though- all twenty-five years of it. College had helped to an enormous degree… along with being away from my parents. Not that they weren't amazing people. They were just also boring, ordinary people and it got suffocating after fourteen years of the same routine day in and out. Sometimes you needed to break free and change things up for your sanity.

I pulled a blue blouse with buttons going up the front and grabbed the red sleeveless dress shirt from my bed. "So our options are the classic button-up that speaks to being plain and efficient or the shirt with a jacket combo that shows off just a bit of fierceness and helps me stand out." He looked between the two with a neutral expression, crystal blue eyes that mirrored my own looking the two over. Eyes that were good enough to make him the dreamiest weatherman in Central City if the internet comments were anything to go by. "Thoughts?"

He paused, hand going to his chin. "What did you say you were going for again? I just want a refresher so I can pick what best matches the desired tone."

I took a breath, alternating between holding each in front of my pajama top. I glanced at the clock- two hours. Plenty of time as long as my hair cooperated. "Okay. We're trying to say that we are so sorry about what happened to the previous CSI to create this position, but we will help keep the department moving forward into a bright new future with our hard work and positive attitude to the point the appointment becomes permanent." It had been a stroke of luck really. I had been in Central City four months with no job prospects in the city or any nearby suburbs. I had been reaching the end of the deal I made with my parents that would land me back home at the local police station in town solving nothing more than where Farmer Greg's sheep had wandered off. They had offered, but I just could not stand the idea of ending up back where I had started my journey in life after I had escaped. Luckily, Jenny had come to me with something she had heard about a possible job listing. So it was like God had made the position just for me in my darkest hour, telling me I would not have to resign my life to tracking down animals rather than criminals. That my parents would soon stop calling and reminding me that my bedroom was waiting for me at home. Granted I nailed this interview with Captain Singh.

"That's a lot for some clothes to say."

"Yes," I agreed. "But they can say that if you pick the right one." I had already made my choice, but I still felt like I needed another opinion at this point for confirmation in my decision. And because if he volunteered for this then Thomas was going to follow through and pick something out.

"Remind me what happened to the last CSI again?"

"From what your wife has heard from her officer friends at the precinct, he was struck by lightning in his lab and is currently in a coma," I stated very matter-of-factly. "It has been about two weeks and they're getting too backed up to just leave the job empty hoping he comes marching back in." Poor guy. But his loss was my gain, my much needed gain. The position had been listed as temporary, but chances were he wasn't waking up at this point I'd imagine. Give it a few months and soon I'd be the new CSI for the Central City Police Department which was more than I ever dared dream.

"And I hope we're planning of being sensitive about this issue that is probably personally affecting everyone there as he is a person that they know and care about?" my brother seemed to crawl into my mind and read my less than stellar thoughts. "Because sensitive isn't really your strong suit."

"I will be respectful about the fact that someone had to be put through great suffering to award me this opportunity, yes." And I would. Anything to get me in the door. Maybe that shouldn't quite be my motivation. I needed to work on that. Maybe once I got the job and could stop worrying about this whole mess- the possibility of driving to various farms day in and day out behind me.

His face was staring at mine, trying to see if I was sincere or not. I did my best to look so and he finally seemed to accept my attitude. "The blue one."

"Sleeveless it is," I nodded, tossing the one he had just suggested back in the closet with a flourish. I looked better in red anyway. He just rose from the chair with a squeak, knowing better than to argue with me once I had made up my mind. It just wasn't worth the time and energy. "Now, thank you for your help but I need to get ready. You should have enough time to get Aggie to school before I need to borrow the car to get to the precinct."

"I do have a daughter to get to school now that you mention it." This was the reason Thomas was probably the only one of my siblings I could stand. Despite having a bit of an age gap and three siblings between us, he and I were the most alike in terms of personality. That being we were the ones who received the vinegar rather than sugar as my mom liked to put it. And that meant we could tolerate one another when we hated the rest of the world, count on each other to snap the other out of it. The others had often never been able to quite grasp the way we spoke to them and especially not to each other. "But if I'm remembering correctly, I named her Agatha."

"And I remember telling you that I was never going to call her that because it is literally the worst name that ever existed."

"It's a family name! Our grandmother was named Agatha if you'll recall."

"If you'll recall, that woman was awful and hated me."

"She didn't hate you!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "She literally called me the 'Affair Child' whenever Dad and my mom weren't around." My mom had been one of Dad's secretaries back when he worked in Starling City, but she apparently left enough of an impression that his previous three children left with him to the country- new wife on his arm. Then I came along seven months later, immediately the odd one out to every member of Dad's side of the family who thought he was insane for leaving everything behind.

Given what was happening there now, maybe we had been lucky.

He winced. "Yeah. Yeah, she did. Didn't she once take us all out for ice cream sundaes and you…"

"Could only get sherbet? Yes. That happened."

He started for the doorway with the chair, hitting his knuckle on the wooden frame. "You can call her Aggie."

"Thank you." With him gone, I proceeded to round up the perfect pair of dress pants and jacket to add a layer of professionalism to the outfit. The closet of the guest room was pretty small, meaning I pretty much had to pry anything I wanted out with a crowbar since it was so tightly packed. That and I literally had to crawl under everything to get to the shoes in the back corner, selecting a pair of shiny black flats.

Once I heard the telltale sound of an excited young girl being ushered out the door and a garage closing, I jumped into the shower across the hallway. Aggie and I shared it at the moment, meaning the tub was littered with all sorts of rubber ducks and other toys that I had to remove from the edge and place back perfectly once I was done. Otherwise, the poor girl might have a heart attack. I was running low on time, so I chose to quickly dry my hair before pulling out the curling iron to run through my long black hair that came down to my shoulder blades. I wasn't quite able to get the bouncing look I had perfected long ago, but it was enough to make me look like I hadn't just rolled out of bed.

I quickly applied the makeup I kept in a drawer too high for Aggie to reach, making sure I was subtle rather than flashy. My blue eyes stared back at me in the mirror. They were by far my stand-out feature, the one thing everyone remembered me by whether it be a broken heart or a winning student. You could always tell a Porter by the eyes.

I had just finished throwing my clothes on, smoothing to make sure there were no wrinkles, and grabbing my purse with resume inside when Thomas arrived back home. I climbed down the elaborate twisting staircase that was going to kill someone someday and jogged through the foyer to the front door. There he passed me the keys with a pat on the back. "You've got this, Lin."

"Thanks." The drive was a relatively quick one. It usually would take me about a half hour, but the streets had been pretty quiet since the whole particle accelerator incident at STAR Labs. People had been afraid to leave their houses fearing some kind of radiation in the air after the placed had melted down, but numerous scientists had appeared on the new to say there was nothing to fear. The explosion had been the exposure and no one had died or been harmed because of it. I personally had been visiting home when it happened and was glad from Thomas and Jenny's descriptions that I had missed the excitement. Nothing quite annoyed me like blind panic when reason would suffice. Still, two weeks later and the city was still pretty quiet compared to how it usually was.

I parked outside the precinct and carried myself proudly into the building and riding the elevator to my desired floor once I had secured a visitor's pass. I kept in mind now that everyone was weighing me, sizing me up. I needed to keep myself standing straight at all times and make sure I left a positive first impression. I knew when I needed to have the glittering smile and be 'on'. This was certainly one of those times as the elevator opened with a ding and exposed me to the grandiose atmosphere of the higher CCPD. I tried to pass it off as curious mild interest, but my heart leaped at the grand scale of the staircases on each side and the display of what looked to be Gods on the one wall with the words 'Truth, Justice, Liberty' emblazoned with them. The floor even appeared to be made of marble, green compass emblazoned upon it. The entire police force was behind another set of glass doors, allowing me a look into them running here and there to do their jobs. They were certainly up to more than looking for lost sheep. I had come a long way from my days in the country for sure.

A kind secretary led me inside to outside Captain Singh's office where I sat politely, resume in hand at the ready. I kept my back straight against the chair, noticing I was drawing glances from the occasional officer as they passed. Everyone was moving as if they were on a mission though and I could imagine business had picked up since the whole STAR Labs thing. People had seen the chaos and took advantage of it as they were prone to do. Which is exactly why this place need to get a new CSI asap and stop worrying about hurting the feelings of someone in a coma.

I could instantly hear my brother in my head lecturing me to be sympathetic. I shook the thought from my brain and continued taking stock of the place. Soon the door opened as two men emerged. The first was an older man, African American, who looked exhausted beyond belief. I could see he was a Detective from his badge and he turned to give me a curt nod, eyes the type that betrayed his emotion easily. This man was unbelievably sad and worried about something- the world on his shoulders. I did my best to look completely sympathetic as I nodded back somberly, playing to my audience. The second was much younger, blonde, and he stopped to give me a smile. He was clearly stressed as well but he did a much better job of hiding it as he actually managed to sound cheerful.

"The Captain says you can go in now." I rose to my feet, dusting my pants off.

"Thank you very much, Detective," I noticed the badge on him as well. And just like I guessed he seemed to appreciate the addressing of his rank, holding the door open as I entered.

Captain Singh was sitting at his desk, dressed impeccably in his jacket and tie. He rose to greet me and I made sure my handshake had the right amount of strength and timing. "You must be Lindsey Porter."

"Yes," I greeted warmly, but still with the level of necessary respect. "I just want to start by saying how sorry I am that you're in this situation to begin with, Captain Singh. I know these past few weeks have been difficult for this city, but for you possibly even more. It's never easy to fill a position when you're secretly hoping you won't have to."

"Thank you," he answered sincerely, clearly slightly impressed at my wording. He gestured for me to sit and followed once I did. "I've been over your resume. This would be your first CSI job, correct?"

"That is correct, sir. But I find what I lack in experience I make up for in willingness. I want to be the best at my job and am willing to put in the time it takes to get there. I also acknowledge that this means I have things left to learn and am willing to adjust and maneuver until I find a style that works for myself and this department."

"This job will have a lot of odd hours. There isn't quite a set schedule. When you're needed by the detective you'll be expected to arrive."

"I understand that and have no other commitments that would interfere with my ability to do the job. I am also very timely- I know it's silly but I kind of pride myself on the fact that I was never absent or tardy to any of my high school and college classes." It was true. Thomas thought I was insane.

He kept his eyes down, looking over my resume, but he seemed to be nodding imperceptibly. I had to fight back my smile. I was knocking this out of the park. "Any issues we would need to be aware of if you were offered the position?"

I had prepared for this one. "I do feel the need to state that I have a family member in the Coroner's Office, who I might be working and interacting with. Of course she would receive no special treatment and we can definitely function with a working relationship. Jennifer Porter is her name."

"You're related to Jenny Porter?" Leave it to Jenny to be a solid reference. She was pretty beloved in the office and I imagined the sentiment was the same around here. She never had a bad word to say and was always willing to bend over backwards to help anyone who needed her. She was probably as close to perfect as a person could get.

I nodded, smiling brightly. "She's my sister-in-law. I'm living with her and my brother right now until I get settled."

"When's the baby due?"

"She's got about three months yet… plans on working until she goes into labor of course."

"So your brother's the weatherman on Channel Five then right? Thomas Porter the Storm Reporter?"

I had to force myself not to roll my eyes. Thomas of course loved the nickname. I thought it was completely cheesy for a dork who was interested in the way clouds moved.

Singh snapped as if putting something together. "I knew I recognized those eyes of yours from somewhere."

"Yes. Though he has put them much more to use than I have winning over all the ladies of Central City."

He laughed at this, a genuine chuckle. But then it was almost as if something clicked back into place and his stern demeanor reaffixed itself. "I do feel a need to reiterate that this position is a temporary posting. In the event Mr. Allen is able to return the position would be returned to him."

"I do," I agreed instantly. "And I hope he does." It was a straight-up lie I admit, but it was clear Singh was fond of my former even if he would never admit it. I had to tread carefully here. "This would just be a means of gaining experience while I could. It would certainly make my resume look better when the time did come that I moved on." Which hopefully I wouldn't actually have to do.

He was about to say something but there was a knock on the door, followed by a man in a mustache sticking his head in. "Sir, you're needed in the bullpen." He noticed me and chose his next words carefully. "We think we found something relating to… that incident."

"I'll be there in a few minutes, Berkley. I was wrapping up here anyway." He nodded and vanished from the doorway, closing the door behind him. Singh looked apologetic as he rose. "I'm sorry to have to cut things short."

I rose, waving my hand. "I completely understand. Crime waits for no man." And I would take a short, successful interview out of a dragged-out one. Singh had to move fast on this before things got too out of hand around here without a CSI. I couldn't ask for a more perfect opening. I extended my hand and he shook it warmly.

"We'll be in touch soon. Thank you for coming in."

"Thank you for considering me, Captain Singh." With that, he escorted me out to the elevators before heading back towards the bullpen where everyone seemed to be gathered. It wasn't until I was alone in the elevator that I dropped my façade for a moment and pumped my fist.

Nailed it.

I told Thomas as much when I got back to the house, changing into a pair of jeans and a tee as soon as I could lumber up the stairs to my room. I kept myself entertained the rest of the day relaying the interview to my parents and then engaging in my odd hobby. With the lack of opportunity to works scenes as a CSI, I had taken to combing stories on the internet of not just Central City and mentally cataloguing how I would work the scene and what I would look at. It kept me sharp despite my knowledge of how odd the practice was- imagining crime scenes in gruesome detail. I spent hours at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, enduring the judgement of my brother whenever he passed. "Horrible taste in both hobbies and coffee. You're lucky we're related."

Aggie was home soon enough as well and was determined to describe to me in detail every moment of her day in second grade, including how Timothy had let the class frog loose and it had managed to hop into the cafeteria. "And then Alice had him hop on her sandwich. She refused to eat it, and I told her that was silly since frogs have microbiota just like we do." Ah, one of the words she had picked up from me and her mom. The pronunciation left something to be desired, but it was clear Aggie was going to make one hell of a scientist someday. "Jimmy, Jimmy Bean, he said I was a big fat liar. So I ate it."

"You ate it?"

"Yeah. And it tasted just fine Aunt Lindsey. Just like I told them."

It was actually more exciting than most stories she relayed, but I listened to all of them in rapt attention. Not many kids were interesting in my opinion, but Aggie was one of them. I loved being Aunt Lindsey and was willing to endure any amount of silly costumes or funny voices or bedtime stories she insisted upon to be the Cool Aunt in her eyes. She had told me multiple times I was never allowed to move out, which was unfortunately not a plan we could agree on. But I also loved just being around her. Aggie had the kindness of her mother but the little bit of devil may care that her father made famous. It was refreshing and never made for a dull moment. And she was by far the best part of my moving to Central City.

Jenny came home and Thomas was ready with dinner. He was not the best chef by any stretch of the imagination, but what he lacked in talent he made us for in consistency. It seemed that every two or three weeks, the dishes would loop back around again back onto the table. He was working on expanding and experimenting, but it was very difficult to get a pregnant wife and a six-year-old to be adventurous and try new things at this point. So the routine continued.

I was digging into my corn as Aggie relayed her story again- her parents more horrified than impressed as I was- when my phone started ringing in my pocket. I pulled it out, swallowing quickly, to see it was the CCPD.

"No phones at the table!" Aggie yelled at me, a phrase her mother had said to me many times.

I patted her blonde head, identical to her mother, as I passed to step into the living room. "This is a special occasion."

I picked it up as I sat on the plush new couch that had me sink at least an inch. "Hello? This is Lindsey Porter."

"Porter, it's Captain Singh." My breath halted as I waited to hear the next words. "Frankly, I have neither the time nor the patience to keep these interviews going. I'm swamped and need a CSI yesterday." Not quite how I wanted this conversation to go, but I'd take it. "You seem to have done well in school and have a good attitude about the situation, so I want to offer you the job."

Thomas stuck his head in and I gave him the thumbs up as I nearly jumped off the couch. "Thank you so much, Captain Singh. Thank you." I couldn't stop my giddiness from coming out. "You won't regret this."

"Can you start tomorrow by any chance? We'll get you orientated, introduce you to the Detectives, and then show you the lab you'll be using." He didn't have to say it, but I kind of understood what he left out. The lab where someone had been struck by lightning a few weeks ago. Hopefully they had fixed that issue.

"Absolutely."

"Alright. I will see you at nine a.m. tomorrow then. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this, Porter. I'm sure you'll do an excellent job filling in until Allen is on his feet again. Hell, anything would be better than the chaos we have at this point."

"Glad I could help out. See you tomorrow." I hung up the phone and fell back into the couch cushions in triumph. I had done it. I had a job, and not just any job. I was going to be working for the police department of a major city. I wouldn't be packing up my bags anytime soon, except maybe into an apartment once I got settled.

Because even though Singh had stressed multiple times the job was temporary I had looked into the laws of Central City and found a huge point in my favor. If by half a year I was still holding the job and the current employee had no return date, then legally it was time the job be changed over to me.

All I had to do was hold my own for six months and impress them so much I got to keep the job. That wouldn't be hard. Just go in with a positive attitude and stay diligent. Organize things and build relationships. Foster a sense of trust with the Detectives. Do everything in my power to make losing me such a tragedy it couldn't happen.

Well, that and this Allen guy had to stay in his coma. Which I imagine wouldn't be too much of a long shot if he'd already been under for weeks, though I didn't have the statistical data on that. It was a tragedy to be sure, but when one door closes another door opens I suppose. He had created an opportunity for me and I was very appreciative.

Because in six months I was going to become the new CSI of the CCPD.

I couldn't wait.


	2. Life at the CCPD

_Life at The CCPD_

I exited the elevator as eight forty-five, cup of coffee from home in hand. Thomas had work today and thus had to be out the door by five am, but he had been kind enough to leave it along with a note encouraging me not to punch anyone on my first day. He was apparently never letting my actions the first day of preschool go, but in my defense Sam Cooper had totally deserved it.

I actually had woken up in time to give my hair its full curls, allowing it to bounce with each step I took across the floor. I had thrown together something a little more causal today with a pair of khaki pants and a button-up polka-dotted blouse partnered with a very cute pair of matching polka dot shoes I had found when college thrifting. The look I had been going for this morning was highlighting I was a bit green so others wouldn't try to intimidate me too much, but also while still projecting an air of cooperation and professionalism. Basically, I wanted to look nice.

I still had to take a moment to mentally scream at just the state of the base, still unaccustomed to such a large setting on any scale. Even where I had attended school was a smaller college away from home, nestled in the middle of nowhere so that us students could basically do whatever the hell we wanted. This… this was my first taste of the big leagues. And I think I was already becoming an addict.

I came to a stop before Singh's office, taking a deep breath and making sure everything was just how I wanted it. The precinct was pretty quiet at the moment, a few Detectives lounging about as they worked on paperwork. These must have been the ones stuck overnight judging by how tired they looked. Though I imagine there must have been quite a bit of paperwork these few weeks. There had been a number of deaths people believed were tied to S.T.A.R. Labs that all needed to be looked into, let alone the site itself.

Good thing I was here now.

I knocked politely on the door and stepped in only once I received permission to enter. The Captain looked like he hadn't gone home- still in the same suit and tie as yesterday and paperwork laid out in just about every corner of the desk. He only looked up once I had come to stand right before the desk, eyes glazed over until he recognized me.

"Porter." He glanced at his watch. "Is it already that time? I could have sworn I had a few more hours to get everything sorted out for you." He started digging through the papers for something. "Have a seat. I'm sorry but it might take me a minute to find that orientation packet." I dutifully dropped into the chair as he let out a sigh. I extended my mug.

"You look like you need this more than I do, sir." He just stared at it for a beat before waving his hand. I set it down on the edge of the desk, making sure it didn't come into contact with any papers. "I'm going to have to insist, sir. It's fresh, I haven't touched it yet, and you can just give the mug back to me at the end of the day."

"You're too kind." I waited patiently as he continued to search, finally giving in after a few minutes to take a gulp of the coffee. I knew what was coming, it always happened, and felt myself cheer on the inside when he paused to turn back to the cup. "Wow. That's actually really good."

I couldn't help but smirk. "Turns out my brother is good for something outside predicting storm clouds with a moderate success rate. It's the only reason I keep him around really if I'm being honest. College was an absolute nightmare with just the local coffee shop around." They had been dark days for sure. I could hardly stand any form of coffee shop. On the one date I'd had since arriving in Central City I'd actually brought my own cup of coffee to this local coffee shop. He hadn't found it as endearing as I hoped. I should have calculated for that really. "And before you ask, the brew is a complete secret. He won't even tell me what… witchcraft he pulls."

"Well, he certainly has a career if the city ever chases him out of the weatherman job." I had told him as much before, but there was only one thing my brother had wanted to do his whole life- become a magician and control the weather. Even when kids at school were making fun of him for it, including myself and my siblings. He'd had to settle a bit unfortunately when the letter from Hogwarts never came, but he seemed happy.

The coffee seemed to have the intended effect, clearing Singh's head enough that he was able to find the papers with relative ease. Orientations were pretty much the worst thing ever, especially the ones that insisted on icebreaker games with the other trainees. I wasn't about to bare personal details to the person next to me just because it had been the last seat in the room. Especially when chances were they were in another department I'd never see again. Then there were the hours of going over safety information complete with videos, signing your life away for benefits, and sometimes even going as far as to teach you how to use a computer because there was a sixty-year-old in the group who looked at it like it was going to eat her or something. Overall, a complete sucking hole of time and energy.

But Singh didn't need any frivolity. He was confident I could introduce myself to people on my own. There were no benefits to cover since this was a temporary position- for now. I was quick and efficient with any and all paperwork, making sure I had all the details I would need memorized and necessary licenses on hand. And even if he wanted to, I'm pretty sure Singh couldn't explain the details of my job to me very well. Detectives seemed to assume us CSI's went into a lab and did some kind of quick sorcery science that got the needed details to them and were content to leave it at that. The Captain appeared to be no exception.

I was taken to the lab next, ascending one of the staircases in the lobby. When we entered and Singh switched on the light, kind of unnecessary given the skylight and windows along one wall, I felt a chill go up my spine. At first I thought it was just pure excitement at having such a big space as my playground, shelves lined with bottles upon solutions and a better microscope than I had ever seen before that I instantly gravitated towards. But a second sweep of the room made me realize it was more at the absolute disarray everything was in. Everything looked to be in the wrong place- everything. Chemicals that shouldn't be anywhere near one another we precariously close. The colors of vials and bottles were all over the place and completely disrupting the flow of the room. The desk was a mess with papers everywhere, notes scrawled on everything from napkins to an old comic book. It was such a big space, but the space wasn't being utilized to its fullest potential at all with things in clusters rather than organically about the room.

This… cacophony may have worked for this Allen, but it certainly wasn't going to work for me.

"It may be a little out of sorts," Singh undersold it as I started looking over the shelves, mentally reorganizing. "Allen took a few shelves down when… that night. We propped them back up, but we lost a lot of supplies and didn't quite know how to rearrange everything." Well, that explained about twenty percent of this chaos. I glanced down and noticed I had nearly stepped on a piece of glass that surely had been missed, sighing as I unsuccessfully tried to locate a glove to pick it up.

You know your lab had problems when it took three minutes to locate a pair of clean rubber gloves.

Still, I would refuse to let a project like this dampen my enthusiasm at just what I had been handed. I was going to be unstoppable with this kind of equipment. The criminals of Central City weren't going to know what hit them when I put them behind bars with all the tricks I was going to be able to pull.

"Captain Singh," a deep voice caught both of our attention. I looked from behind one of the shelves to see the dark-skinned Detective from yesterday had entered like a man on a mission. His eyes found me instantly, giving me a quick look over before returning to the Captain. "This is her, right?"

Singh nodded and I stepped forward, extending my hand. "Lindsey Porter. I look forward to aiding you on your cases, Detective."

He gave the briefest handshake, almost completely out of obligation, before turning back to Singh. "You've been over everything with her? About the lab."

"She was just taking a look around, Joe. We haven't had the chance to discuss some of the finer details." He turned back to me, and I knew I had looked puzzled for brief second before forcing myself back to neutrality. "This is Detective Joe West. He's someone you'll be working closely with. He was just barging in here," Singh's voice got a little sharper, "to remind me of an aspect of this space we wanted to make clear."

"And what would that be?" I tried to keep my voice polite, hiding any bite it might have at the way Detective West was staring at me. He was clearly giving me a onceover I wasn't living up to, and I wanted to call him out on it. But this wasn't preschool anymore.

"You have free reign of this lab while you're here including any and all equipment and chemicals. But the lab is still considered by us to belong to Mr. Allen. Thus, we request that it be kept in the same condition it is currently in for his return."

No way. They wanted me to work like this. "Excuse me?" I instantly realized my mistake as both of their expressions shifted. I wasn't looking like the obedient soldier I needed to be anymore, and I desperately tried to recover myself. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I just… the space isn't quite how I would have it. But I will naturally respect your wishes and keep everything to the best of my ability just how it is for the time being." I made eye contact with a skeptical Detective West, unable to understand why this seemed so important to him. Had Allen really been this popular with everyone that they were desperate to maintain the charade he was coming back? "You have my word on that."

"Good. Just wanted to be clear about that for Barry's sake." He glanced at Singh. "We know how out of sorts he'll be if he gets back and everything's different from how he has it." And then Detective West was gone with the cold air about him following. It looked like I had stuck out with my first Detective. This wasn't going to help things at all. Also, what kind of name was Barry?

Singh cut through the silence of Detective West's departure after a moment. "It's been a rough couple of weeks for Detective West. He lost his partner that night trying to bring someone in. And then he comes back here just in time to see Allen being carried into an ambulance to the hospital."

"Are they close?" I hated prying, especially about personal lives, but his behavior still wasn't quite adding up to me. This seemed much too personal to him.

"He practically raised him actually… took him in when he was eleven as a single parent with a daughter already. He pretty much considers him to be his son by all accounts. Goes and visits him every day no matter how busy he is. So you can understand how rough this transition is for him in particular."

"He doesn't want anyone to give up on Mr. Allen," I deduced, already figuring what I would say to Detective West the next time I saw him. I needed to make this transition easier for him, especially with what the conclusion to this was going to be. The last thing I needed was for him to fight me every day of my career here. "I meant what I promised him. I won't mess around with anything." Yet. I'd just have to endure this for six months and then I could turn this place into everything I had dreamed about. This would just be a pale imitation when I was through. Something firmly in the past for everyone.

After taking another quick tour about the room- and making mental notes for what I could change later- I joined Singh back over by the desk facing the window. "Well, let's get started," I dived right in, ready to start putting everything to use. Ready to finally put all the things I had learned at college into actual practice. "Where do you want me to begin?"

"The night everything happened with S.T.A.R. Labs... a lot of people died or were hurt. Some of them could just be coincidence of course- just so happened to fall down my stairs while a particle accelerator decided to go out in Wells' blaze of glory."

"Or get struck by lightning."

"But we believe a lot of them can be tied to it more directly and that the man responsible might possibly be held culpable for them in court. And we know it won't fix everything, but it might be a way to start putting this city straight and helping it move on. Especially the families of those involved."

"I completely agree." And I did. This city seemed ready to hit the panic button again at any time, and it was starting to get pretty annoying to watch. The news had run stories about the Lab for two weeks now with no added information, just running the story completely into the ground because no one could stop mentioning it. They had even done drills of ducking under desks and hiding in closets at Aggie's school when she went back. I don't even know what the hell that was supposed to do. It wasn't like S.T.A.R. Labs was going to build another one and do it all again at this point. But it seemed to satisfy the parents and that was a pretty hard feat to accomplish.

"So we want you to look over the scenes and record any observations that might help with that... and sooner rather than later."

I couldn't help but take pause. "Sir, I'd be happy to go look into them. But at this point they're over two weeks old. Even if everything has been taped off, the elements had to have made a lot of impact on the quality of evidence I would gather." He wasn't just trying to set me up on some wild goose chase right? Was this some kind of test? Or was this Barry Allen some freak of nature who could turn results out of weeks old crime scenes? Because then I was royally screwed when it came to expectations on this job, a possibility that had not even entered my mind until now.

"That is correct." I felt my heart slow a few beats. Okay, the Captain wasn't expecting me to walk on water. This was good. "We do have some things we gathered at the time plus probably close to a thousand photos. Just look through them and see what you believe may be important or capable for us to use."

I couldn't believe my luck. My first job was going to be something I basically did in pretty much all of my personal free time. It would require organization, something I clearly had in spades over what I was starting to consider my competition a bit. Except now I was going to make money to do it, which was a definite plus. I was getting paid to continue my hobbies. Just saying, dream job.

I tried to bury my excitement under a layer of professionalism though, not wanting to put Singh off any more than I already had. "Let's get those photos in here then. I'll keep you updated on my progress as we go." I was about to blow your mind, Captain Singh. When I was done with this assignment you are going to want to hire me on the spot.

His phone went off then and he took off with a quick word that all the folders were downstairs. I had sat at the disaster of a desk for a few minutes before realizing he meant for me to fetch them myself rather than having them brought up. I had to remember it all wasn't going to be fun and games. CSI's were often expected to do a lot of the grunt work the rest of the precinct didn't quite have the time or effort to achieve. So I made my way back down the stairs, keeping up airs as more Detectives were arriving to begin what was probably going to be another busy day.

I was going to have to ask someone about the folders and my eyes circulated the options as I stepped through the glass doors to where everyone was at their desks. The secretary was probably my best bet, but I guessed she wasn't going to be up for helping me carry everything since she looked to be about eighty. I wouldn't when I got up there. Let the kids handle their own folders.

" _So, overall, expect today to be the first bit of summer sunshine for Central City in a long while_ ," came a very familiar voice. I quickly found the television hanging in one corner, displaying my brother in one of his brightly colored shirts he insisted on. Jenny and I had made a secret vow to hide all of them one day. He had his best winning smile and it wasn't difficult to notice all the girls stopping behind him on the street to point and take pictures. Because of the whole colorblind issue, Thomas insisted on doing reports outside so that he wouldn't be confused by fake patterns on green screens. It also always managed to attract some attraction which wasn't exactly bad either. " _So leave your coats at home and try to spend some time outside if you can. Not a cloud to be found._ " And I knew what was coming next, mouthing it despite myself. " _This has been Thomas Porter, Storm Reporter. Go take the world by storm, everyone._ " And then he finished with a wink.

I rolled my eyes. "Almost a worse name than Agatha." I turned my attention away as they cut back to the morning anchors, refocusing myself on the task at hand. I canvased the room and noticed something in one of the corners, over by Detective West and the blonde man I guessed must have been his partner. I steeled my nerves and made my way over. Neither of them paid me any notice as I examined what had caught my attention- an empty wooden desk with nothing atop it. I casually searched the drawers, seeing nothing in there as well, but perhaps enough space to fit a lot of folders when it was brought up. And it actually was a pretty nice desk.

"Is this desk empty?" I addressed the two. Both of them looked up at me, and I was instantly struck by how skeptical West looked once he realized who I was. This was going to be quite the uphill slope, but I never backed down from a challenge. "I mean, does this belong to anyone at the moment?"

"No," the blonde answered quickly, smile on his face as I looked it over again. "Nobody's used it as long as I've been here at least."

"Why?" West added, slowly crossing his arms. Okay, here we go. Time to get a foothold in the mountain.

"I was thinking maybe I could take it up to the lab then. I'm the temporary CSI." I stressed the temporary. "Because I need a space to work of course, but I don't want to disrupt anything Mr. Allen had lying around. I'm just renting the space out. So this… this could be my desk. I could bring this up and just leave his… completely untouched." I ran a hand over the wood and looked back up at the two of them again, flashing my most charming smile. "Except when I dust it of course. Can't have him coming back to that, right?"

"That sounds like a great idea," Eddie said after a beat of silence, bringing some enthusiasm his partner clearly lacked. "Just maybe mention it to Irene and see if she's alright with it. Then I'd be happy to help you bring it up."

"Really?"

"Of course." He extended his hand. "Detective Eddie Thawne."

"Lindsey Porter," I returned, shaking it. "I'll be right back." I then made my way back over to Irene at the first set of desks outside the glass doors, but not before glancing sneakily over my shoulder at Detective West. He had uncrossed his arms it seemed and was just sitting lost in thought for the moment.

I was taking it as a start.

Irene, the department's secretary of thirty years as she said every time you talked to her, had been slightly grouchy about it and the possibility of change to the layout downstairs. But I soon had her approval and the location of the folders I needed to get started. I made my way back over to the desk and politely asked Detective Thawne for his assistance.

With his help, the guy was pretty strong, we managed to get the desk up the flight of stairs in just under five minutes. I made sure to pull my own weight though, showing that I wasn't just going to sit by and let him take care of everything. I was perfectly capable of handling myself and the whole department should know that. He made idle talk most of the way up and I gave the polite responses. Just a typical first conversation I had navigated many times before- not too much personal information was given but enough that I seemed like a decent and nice enough person. Mentioned I was living with the world famous Storm Reporter and all that. He mentioned being a recent transfer himself from Keystone City. Not the most memorable conversation, but serviceable to fill the time.

Once we had the desk positioned right next to Allen's, I causally mentioned grabbing the folders as well. This of course led to Detective Thawne- or Eddie as he insisted I call him- volunteering himself to help me with those as well. So we made three trips together up and down the stairs, dragging between us about ten very heavy square boxes loaded with everything gathered from after the particle accelerator exploded. "You'll be lucky if you comb through all this in a month," Eddie commented as he practically threw the last one down next to my desk.

I already had one open, doing a quick comb through of all the documents and pictures. "I'm actually hoping I can make it more like a week."

He scoffed. "Only if you plan on living here."

I shrugged. "I've got nowhere else to be."

He leaned against my new desk. "I don't think your boyfriend will like that much."

I froze. Oh no. Please no. Not this already. I didn't have time for this. I turned to face him. "Listen, I know where this is going. You're setting me up." He looked perplexed. "Listen, you seem like a nice guy, but I just started here. I'm not ready for a relationship and even if I was the two of us hardly know each other. So- "

"I wasn't asking you out," he made clear, hands going up to stop my lecture. "I wasn't… I was just… I was just being nice. Making conversation." Shit. He was looking at me kind of like I was a crazy person. A conceited crazy person who assumed everyone was into them after one conversation. God, I usually wasn't bad at signs like this.

"I'm sorry," I made sure to get out instantly. "I'm so sorry. That was a horrible assumption on my part. I just… I misread what you were saying. Umm… let's try that again. No boyfriend. How about you?" I winced. "And just to be clear that wasn't me… I'm stopping now." I must seem like a total spazz right now. This is why I'm usually more careful than this! I should have been ready for anything on my first day, but now it looked like my first working relationship was melting down before my eyes.

Eddie hesitated, which I could understand. I wouldn't want to divulge any more to the crazy girl in polka dots. But it also seemed to run deeper than that, though I may just be reading him wrong again. "I have to get back to Joe. It was nice meeting you, Lindsey."

"I hope we see each other again soon." I gave a cheerful wave, only to fall into my chair once he was out the door. "Lindsey, you are the worst," I groaned to myself, burying my face in my hands.

Best not to dwell on it too long though. There was still work to be done obviously- ten boxes of it. So I took a deep breath, pushed Eddie and our encounter out of my mind, and set about to doing what I was here to do. I pulled up my first document for notetaking and dumped the contents of the first box on my new desk. It looked to be the data gathered from S.T.A.R. Labs itself. Well, the data they had been able to get before a 'hysterical, crying woman declared Harrison Wells, who was currently in the hospital, had declared they needed to leave immediately and couldn't come back until they had a proper warrant'. By the time they had, Wells had the place condemned so basically no one could enter. It was pretty shady actually.

They had managed to take quite a few pictures of devices and contraptions in some sort of tunnel it looked like. They were far beyond my comprehension, so I just did my best to look for things out of place, eyes scanning each one in my perfected manner. Anything I noted I typed into the computer under each item, starting what I was sure was going to become a huge list.

I worked pretty much without stop until close to midnight, taking a few light breaks to pace around the lab and look things over in a bit more detail. Allen seemed to be pretty poor at labeling things, meaning I was unsure about using some of this stuff for fear of what it might end up being. I didn't eat anything, but I'd long since perfected such techniques in my college days. My roommate would get slightly worried when I went the whole day, but I insisted I was fine and could manage. And I did with grades that made it worth it. Just like proving myself here was worth it.

I punched out at midnight, realizing I did need to get some sleep. I had poured through the contents of the first box with only a few more items remaining. It was as start.

The house was dead silent when I got home, even Jenny who was usually quite the night owl seemed to be up in bed. I had a quick apple from the fridge, doing my best to keep silent so I didn't wake anyone. I threw on a pair of pajamas and hopped into bed, noticing I had crumpled a note someone had left on my pillow.

'Tried waiting up, but I'm old. Can't wait to hear about how you blew the place over like a hurricane.'

Thomas, of course. He thought humor related to weather was somehow funny. I on the other hand had yet to laugh at one of these such jokes yet.

I set my alarm and drifted off immediately only to be woken up by the sounds of Of Monsters and Men floating through the room at five am. I shut it off and threw on the pair of clothes I had set out two days ago- the perfect second day of work outfit. It was a little more professional than yesterday with solid colors and a longer skirt, painting me a little more serious but still feminine.

Thomas was at the counter downstairs when I had finished showering and fixing my hair up. He extended a cup of coffee to me which I grabbed greedily. "You're up early."

"There's a lot to do."

"You got home late," he added.

"Again- lot to do."

He waited a beat before speaking. "They're not going to make the job permanent if you live there, just letting you know."

I got a little defensive. "I know that. I'm just… I'm making a good first impression. There's a lot going on in the station and I need to help them sort through it. It's what I'm there for." I grabbed two of the to-go cups and filled them up as he raised an eyebrow. "I'm making friends."

"You're too calculating to make friends the first day. You haven't evaluated everyone enough yet." It was a low blow, but that didn't stop it from being true. I had always been a methodical person who weighted everything before I picked the horse to bet on. It hadn't failed me yet. I was very good as making the right choices if I took my time. But it also had the downfall of making me seem… less friendly. I countered that with the appropriate disposition I had mastered years ago though, making up for what I lacked on all counts.

"Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf," I lied. He knew it too. But I just gathered everything up. "I'll see you later." He just nodded, clearly thinking some things over. It was a dangerous concept and I needed to get out of there sooner rather than later.

I spent my first few hours once I took a bus to the CCPD cleaning everything from top to bottom. I didn't move everything around per se, everything was kept where it had been located before, but just made sure everything became dusted and properly labeled. I tested some chemicals to become sure on what they were and used the label maker I had discovered to shelve them in a proper fashion. I kept inventory on everything that was low in case I needed to put an order in as I found no such list anywhere. There were still some shards of glass on the floor I made sure were swept up and even out of the kindness of my heart kept my promise and dusted Allen's desk thoroughly while putting every piece of junk back exactly where it had been before.

I then brushed the dust off my dress, making my way downstairs with the second cup to set it on the Captain's desk before he arrived. Luckily, the door hadn't been locked which meant I didn't have to wait for Irene to get in. I figured he would enjoy another cup of Thomas's Witches Brew. Just a nice gift from me to him.

Unfortunately, I almost ran right into Detective West as I exited. I managed to backpedal enough to avoid collision though, hands out. "Sorry."

"What were you doing in the Captain's office?" he asked suspiciously. Boy, I had not earned any warmth from him it seemed.

"I was just dropping something off for the Captain. It was nothing. I'll be upstairs if you need anything, Detective West." I started away from him, only to pause when he spoke up.

"It's not going to work." I turned to him, keeping my face carefully hidden under a layer of confusion.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Detective West."

"You're not going to steal Barry's job away from him." I tried to look offended, but he cut me off before I could speak. "I have a daughter, Miss Porter. I've seen that face a lot in my life just as I've seen your entire act. Leaving things for the Captain, staying and coming in after and before everyone else, calculating every word you say- though my daughter grew out of it." I didn't have to pretend to look offended, because now I really was. "You don't care about anyone or anything besides what you want- which in this case happens to be the job you're holding."

I tried to recover this without getting fired up. That would not help things at all. "I'm just trying to help out while I'm here. Be of some use to all of you. I know you're hurting Detective West and that may be why you're being so harsh right now. But Barry will come back and I won't have taken his job from him. I even cleaned off his desk today so it's ready for him when he does."

I was met with a finger pointing towards my face as only a father could. "Don't… don't you dare pretend that you care about Barry." His voice was low and dangerous now, attracting a few stares I really didn't need. This man was going to ruin me if I didn't get this under control. But I was honestly kind of petrified. No one saw through me like this. My methods were usually pretty perfect. "Because we both know you don't in the slightest. You care about his job becoming yours."

I opened and closed my mouth several times. Lies weren't going to do it here. He navigated those with ease. But in the case I couldn't do anything but agree with him, which I would do when hell freezes over. It was starting to look like he might have won this battle as I was left with only one option. I retreated back up to the lab without a word, leaving him in the dust behind me like he wasn't worthy of answering. But he and I knew what had truly happened. He had won and now I needed to stay away from him at all costs until this situation had the proper time to fade. Otherwise, I don't think I was going to be walking out next time.

Avoid Detective Joe West had just become a priority.

I spent the whole day up in the lab again, the sun rising and setting as I poured over all the information from various locations around the city where incidents had occurred close to the time the accelerator exploded. No one came to visit or disturb me, leaving me completely to my own time and devices. I couldn't have asked for better conditions. My detailed notes merely grew in length and only once I had made it through three boxes in total did I deem that I had done enough work that I should be allowed to leave. It was about two o' clock in the morning.

I entered the house just as silently as I had the night before, only to near shout as the light from the living room suddenly switched on at my entry. I grabbed my chest. "Thomas, you idiot, you nearly gave me a heart attack," I whispered fiercely. I put my stuff down made my way over to where he was perched on the couch in his pajama pants and t-shirt. "What are you doing up? You have to be at the station at seven."

"Well, when your little sister who said she would see you later doesn't come home nor answers her phone when you try to contact her- it's enough to drive sleep from your mind." I pulled my phone out of my coat pocket, noticing I had about sixteen text message and four voicemails.

"I'm sorry. It was in my coat on vibrate while I was at work and I didn't feel it on the bus at all." I paused, seeing how hard his face was. It seems we had both recognized we were amidst a reoccurring problem of mine. I needed to keep this from happening by just cutting to the chase. "I wasn't thinking. It was… it was selfish of me. Goodnight."

"Sure. Of course." That wasn't it. Great. "Because we set a place at the table for you and you didn't even bother to tell us you weren't coming. Just like we did yesterday." His voice was lacking its usual bounce, and I knew it wasn't because of the whispering.

This was typical Thomas behavior to a fault though. The man was never one to avoid confrontation on any level. He would go tackling a problem to the ground before anyone else even knew there was one. He was never afraid to say what he was thinking and feeling- just laid it out there and dared you to match him in blunt honesty. The other five Porter's in our house had never been able to manage it. But I had learned and adapted, knowing how to shut him down pretty quickly on the small stuff and hold on tight for the knock down drag outs.

But I just wanted my bed right now. I didn't want this. So I went with the logical choice to just concede right from the start. "You're right. I should have thought about all of that. But next time I will, so thank you for making me aware of it." I hoped this was enough to satisfy him.

And then he literally rolled his eyes at me. "Wow, yeah. Real sincere on that one. Can I just say that takes me back? I can remember many a night Dad said the same thing to my mom when he came through the door."

I instantly narrowed my eyes, a bit of fire returning. He was just being such an absolute ass, the kind only a big brother could manage, and he clearly knew it. So I fell into my familiar role of indignant little sister to match him. "I wasn't off having an affair if that's what you're trying to imply."

My response took things up a notch and he responded in kind. "He was late far before your mom came into the picture you know. The job came first. We came second. He'd come rolling home whenever he felt like it and Mom just let him."

I pointed at him. "Sounds like you're projecting your own issues here. That's for you to sort out in therapy."

"I'm not going to be Mom though."

"Jesus Christ!" I couldn't help but exclaim, instantly bringing it back down again as I remembered the other inhabitants of the house. "I was late twice. That can't even be officially considered a pattern yet. You're getting bent out of shape over literally nothing."

He rose, though still remained across the room from me. "I'm getting bent out of shape because my daughter thinks you abandoned her. She hasn't seen you in two days at this point, Lin. She asked us at dinner if she had made you mad and you ran away. She doesn't understand what's going on and why her favorite aunt has gone from seeing her every day to not at all. And with your treating her like that, I just wonder if we should reconsider the whole godmother thing."

Of course I felt a pang of guilt- a deep one. Aggie was the best thing in my life right now. And I had been speechless when the two of them had asked me if I would be this new kid's godmother. It meant a lot, more than a lot. It was one of those moments that I actually felt like I was going in the right direction, something I was more than willing to pretend but wasn't always positive on. So this cut me very deeply. But it also just pissed me off. "You realize I'm not going to live here forever, right? I'm not cursed to stay here for my entire life. I get my own eventually. There will be days I don't see you guys. No need for such dramatics. You don't get to threaten me with a child. I will talk to her tomorrow if you just get off my back you lunatic."

We both stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. He finally broke the gaze, sitting back on the plush couch. All his anger was stripped away as he took a deep breath before looking at me again. "I didn't mean that. I didn't. I just… you're a lot like Dad, Lin. Sometimes more than I would like." His voice was sober now. "To me it just seemed so easy- balancing everything. I never understood how he got so wrapped up in work that everything came after. But I see you do it too. I know he regrets it now and I feel like as your brother I need to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to you. Sure, you get your own life. But I like having you as part of mine… and I don't want anyone in this house to lose that."

And I just felt like someone had knocked me to the floor. That was more honesty than I had been expecting even at this point. He didn't pull punches like these unless he meant them. I tried but there was nothing I could say to counter it. Because it was true. With the wind knocked out of my sails, I took a seat on the couch next to him and placed a hand on his knee. "You're right," I admitted, much sincerer this time. "I do tend to only be able to focus on one thing at a time. I did it all through school. Was the same way in college. But I need to grow up sometime and being an adult means realizing there are more important things than this CSI job." I leaned back, sighing. "I just want it so bad. More than this Allen kid probably ever did."

"If it meant to happen then it will. But Lin, you can't run yourself ragged and basically live at the precinct trying to accomplish something that just might not be in the cards." He put an arm around me and pulled me close, a rare display of affection on his part. Usually it was a punch. "You just have to let this play out however it's meant to."

"You sound like a dad," I bemoaned, cracking a bit of a smile.

"I guess I do," he reflected. "Bound to happen eventually, especially now that I'm going to be one twice over soon enough."

I gave him a playful shove to get us disentangled. "I'm going to bed. I've had enough of this… this." I stood, stretching with a yawn. "I will be home for dinner tomorrow though and then I will talk to Aggie. Make it clear this is all on me and not her. Sound good?"

He nodded, clearly exhausted himself. I stopped at the stairs, needing to add one more thing. "And thank you. Any other big brother, they might have waited a month or two to make me aware of this. But you've never been afraid to call it like you see it as soon as you see it. Which is what a little sister desperately needs. So thank you for that."

"Any time, Lin. Anytime."

I went in at nine the next day a new person, possibly because I had more than a handful of hours of sleep. My third day outfit swung a bit more causal, making me seem like one of the people with khaki dress pants rather than a dress. Not that it mattered though. As soon as I dropped off the to-go cup on Captain Singh's desk, grabbing my one from the day before, I entered the lab with the full intention of remaining sequestered.

I was immediately put off at the sight of someone else already up there, and my heart skipped a beat at the thought of Barry Allen suddenly appearing to ruin everything. But that quickly faded as I realized it was a girl, a girl who was intently staring at Barry's desk. I made my way over to her, kicking a rack with a sneaker so I alerted her to my presence.

She turned instantly and wiped at her eyes, though the tear tracks still glinted in the sun. She was gorgeous beyond a doubt, and it only took me a few seconds to put the pieces together of who she might be and why she had decided to come visit me. Well, not to visit me. She just happened to be in my space now. And I preferred she leave sooner rather than later. But I wasn't screwing myself over even more with Joe by messing this up.

"You must be Detective West's daughter." I extended my hand. "I'm Lindsey Porter, the temporary CSI for the moment."

"Iris," she smiled, shaking it. "I'm sorry for just barging up here."

"Don't worry about it." I went to grab a tissue box I had found when digging around the place, handing it to her. "I get how hard this must be for you. Since they say Joe is basically his father, that must make you the sister then. And us sisters… we take care of our brothers."

"Right," she agreed. "And it just makes me feel so helpless… going to visit him. So I thought being here, it might clear my head a little more than when I just stare at him. I mean I talk to him, but I have no clue if he can hear me. I have no clue if he's even going to wake up sometimes." She shook her head, looking down. "But I can't think like that. I believe in Barry. He's going to pull through this. He has to pull through this."

"He will," I comforted her, not believing a word of it. We were coming up on three weeks now. Soon it was going to be time to move on… and leave me and my lab in peace. "I know it sound impossible, but he seems like he's special."

She actually flashed a bit of a smile, one that lit up her whole face. "You have no idea."

I seriously doubted it, but I was still mostly hoping I'd never get the chance to find out.

She wiped her eyes one more time, looking around. "Thank you for keeping his desk. He keeps it a very specific way."

"I'm just renting the space after all. Don't want to get too settled." I glanced at the clock on the wall. I needed to get going. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I have a lot of boxes I still need to sort through."

"Oh no, sorry." She moved away from the desk. "Sorry again for just coming up here. I know Barry would be happy that you're helping everyone out when he can't. I'm sure you're doing a great job." She backed up a few steps, waving. "It was nice meeting you Lindsey."

"Same here, Iris." She started for the door in earnest, but I felt myself speak up before she could reach it as an idea sprung to mind. "You can come up here again if you want. If it makes things easier for you."

There was that smile again, enough to win over any reservations I had. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. I love company." Anything to get your dad to stop hating me. You should go down and tell him about this conversation right now. Go.

I spent the day pretty much in solitude, though I made sure I was out the door exactly at five with four and a half boxes down. I decided to drop off my progress with Captain Singh who seemed astonished.

"Four? In three days?" I nodded. He looked at my thick packet I had printed for him. "I don't know what to say, Porter. This is… this is almost unbelievable. I know you said you put your nose to the grindstone, but this is beyond compare."

Yep, beyond compare. Needless to say, I left satisfied. I made it home in time to enjoy dinner with my family, fielding all questions Jenny had about the department and everyone I was working with. Apparently there was a rumor spreading from some detectives she had seen that day I had asked Eddie Thawne out which I was prompt to shut down as a miscommunication. Though it did make me feel a little ill at ease our encounter had left such an impression he told his colleagues. Jenny of course assured me it would blow over soon enough. "Besides, who wouldn't ask that man out?"

"He's not my type," I shrugged. I nodded towards her raven haired, bright shirted husband who was trying to get spaghetti sauce off his pant leg. "Obviously not yours either." I turned to Aggie, who was picking at her food. "What's wrong? This night's usually your favorite."

"Are you going to go away again?" To the point, just like her father. God bless him for passing this trait along. If only she could be one of the types who sit and let things stew.

I gave her parents a quick glance before focusing on her. "Aggie, I'm sorry I wasn't here. That wasn't your fault. That was just me being busy. So I've got something important I need to tell you, okay?" She nodded and I simply went, not understanding how this was so easy when it involved a seven-year-old. "I need your help, because sometimes… sometimes I get confused. I think I should spend all my time at work, but we both know I shouldn't. That's not good for you, right? That would be like you being at school forever."

Her nose scrunched up dramatically. "Exactly! So Aunt Lindsey needs your help. She needs to be reminded that she shouldn't be at work- that she should be right here at this table with you or tucking you in bed reading from our story. So I'm counting on you to do that for me." She nodded, clearly becoming very serious about this. "And there may be some days where I do have to work late. I might get stuck doing something too important to leave. I am helping the police after all. So then I promise you something. I promise on those days I will call and talk to you all about your day, no matter what. That way you still get to talk to me every day no matter what." I leaned forward so we were practically nose to nose. "Do we have a deal?"

She stared at me for a long moment before spitting in her sauce stained hand and holding it out. "Deal!"

I glanced at her parents who were just shaking their heads. "Sorry, but I have no choice." I spat in my own hand which practically engulfed hers. "Deal!" Anything to keep that smile on her face. I wasn't letting her down ever again.

I went to bed pretty early, after reading the next chapter to Aggie in the thrilling tales of Junie B. Jones and tucking her in. She seemed to have forgiven me by all accounts, though she did remind me of my promise before I turned off the light. She was just the beacon I needed it seemed.

My last day of my first week looked to be more of the same at first. But then I was greeted by Detective's West and Thawne coming up the stairs to grab me. "We have our first homicide since this whole thing went down. We need the scene checked out," West had stated simply. I couldn't quite judge if he liked me anymore than before and it was unnerving.

I nodded, grabbing the kit I had stocked next to my desk. "Where are we going?"

"Alleyway over on twelfth. I'll start the car." And with that, West was gone. It seemed like I hadn't won him over quite yet. I turned my attention to Eddie, noticing how awkward things to seemed to be. I needed to get this cleared up yesterday. Avoiding hadn't seemed to have helped.

"Cane we start over?" I blurted. "Because I messed up. I admit it. And I don't want you thinking things that aren't true or rumors being spread. So can we just start from the top?"

He made me wait an anxious beat before smiling. "My name is Detective Eddie Thawne."

"Lindsey Porter."

"That's a nice desk you have there."

"Thanks. It would have been a real pain to get up here, but I had pretty good company." Things were looking up all around hopefully. The two of us proceeded for the exit but I remembered something, halting. "Go ahead. I'll be right down. I want to grab some extra gloves just in case."

I went back over to the desk and quickly packed some, ready to head out on my first real assignment. It was both satisfying and terrifying, but I knew I could do this. I paused at the map of Central City that was next to the desk, looking for where Detective West had reported the homicide. I traced my finger down twelfth, but then paused as I felt a bump under my finger.

I pushed, realizing there was some sort of pin behind this map. I knew I needed to get going, but curiosity caused me to pull the handle at the bottom of the map so it went up and exposed what lie underneath. Allen must have been hiding something under here and I needed to know exactly what it was to continue. I just did.

And that was how I discovered The Board of Crazy.

XXX

 _Wow. I just want to thank everyone for such a warm welcome. I was unsure about putting this out there and adding my name to such a talented group of people, but the feedback was so much bigger than my wildest dreams. Thank you for the love and support and I'm looking forward to continuing onwards, especially to a certain someone and his friends finally throwing Lindsey completely off her game and sparking what I hope is a pretty exciting relationship between them. In my head it is at least._

 _Thank you to all those who have decided to follow this story by making sure to add it to their Alerts to stay on top of things. Thank you .Current, AquaRoseWaters, CirceanPoison, CrazyBirdLady63, Just A European Foreigner, Kaygrams, LadyErised, Marfo Faura, Pein's Kid, Purple Dilemna, Saitarscorpion1, SaraSalvatore-Mikaelson, Spunky Funsize, Starlyrical, Thalia Luz, TontoJohnson, VelmaInkley, artchaser, clarinetgirl628, , golden-priestess, heroherondaletotherescue, kelbell79, kimchi759, tenorsaxgirl, vsncheze, and xxtoushirou._

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 _And thank you to those who gave love in the form of such positive words. I have read them all multiple times and can't thank you enough for your Reviews. Thank you Spunky Funsize, Lindsey, anonymous, heroherondaletotherescue, ComeYES, and artchaser. I look forward to our conversation in the future._

 _See you all soon._


	3. The Meeting

_The Meeting_

If I had known today was going to be the day I would have definitely picked a different outfit.

I had walked in this morning planning on looking at some samples I had run overnight when Irene had flagged me down before I could flee up the stairs. Captain Singh had something important he wanted to discuss with me. I could have a seat in his office and he'd be in as soon as he got together some necessary paperwork.

It was like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert. I had been starting to doubt this day would ever come once the six months had come and gone. The apartment I had lined up had to be passed over because though I had the savings for a few months, I currently had no form of stability in my life when it came to my job. And I had no plans of going into the Captain's office to recite the law at him and demand my station become permanent and put Allen out to pasture. That would undermine nearly all of my efforts. I had to pretend I wasn't even aware of the law at all. So I just sat tight and waited for everyone to finally get the picture or some sort of government notice to come down from on high.

It had been nearly three months since then. Three very long months. But hey, I suppose I could stop complaining now. Because it was finally happening. Singh was going to give me the job I had been knocking out of the park if I did say so myself. And here I was wearing a pair of khaki's and a blouse with my hair thrown up in a ponytail. All because Jenny had asked me to hold Roger for a few minutes and my dress had taken the bullet.

I took my seat across the desk from his empty chair, letting my hair out and trying to fluff it a bit. I wanted to have my look hold some of the weight of this moment. I had a mental picture to capture as I shook his hand and accepted with a smile that showed my excitement but also an understanding at the weight of everything. And just a glimmer of realization that I was the future of CSI work at the CCPD, leading us into a bright new future. No offense meant to Allen of course. I could send him a card or something in way of an apology. I mean, of course he wouldn't be able to read it with the coma and all that, but it was the thought that counted.

Allen and I had what probably had the weirdest relationship for two people who had never met before. Before I had thought of him as a non-entity. Nothing for me to panic about. But it became clear that I wasn't shaking off comparisons any time soon like I had imagined. Everything I did was on some level being compared to what he had been able to do, whether it was in Singh's face or a comment an officer made. This office had watched him grow up and felt for him in a way I had not comprehended when I took this job. And their fondness meant I had to shift my mentality.

Because despite the fact he was off in a hospital bed somewhere, I could never shake the feeling he was right over my shoulder at all times. That he was always watching what I was doing with a dark smirk and shake of his head at my abilities. I know it sounded crazy, but he was never able to be too far from my mind when I worked. I knew I had to keep one step ahead of him at all times- I couldn't let up for even a second with each case I worked. I had to evaluate and try to side-step mistakes I felt like he was hoping I'd make, put more effort into making relationships than I ever had before, and drag myself in even when I had a hundred-degree fever. Because

Thomas thought I was absolutely insane. I was trying to stay ahead of a ghost.

But for me… this was war.

And I was going to damn well win.

But that hadn't been my way of thinking until after my first case. It was almost kind of hard to believe how much simpler everything seemed when Detective West pulled up to one of the dirty nooks Central City provided. I climbed out of the backseat, hair thrown up in a ponytail on the drive over so it would stay out of my face. Kit in hand, I took a deep breath and for the first time made my way under the yellow tape that had already been stretched around the perimeter. A couple of squad cars had been parked on the curb around us and I instantly found the suited officer who seemed to be in charge of the operation at the moment.

"I want no cameras within this block until CSI is finished," he commanded a much younger cadet who was nodding vigorously. "The last thing we need is pictures of this ending up on the web or something." The young one skittered off, clearly eager to please in a way I could understand.

I cleared my throat, extending my hand. "Lindsey Porter. I'm the new CSI for the CCPD."

The officer just blinked at me for a few moments, round face scrunched in what could only be described as bafflement. Detective Thawne and West came up behind me and his eyes locked on the two of them. "Detective West, what's going on here?"

"Lindsey Porter is going to be working with us until Barry is ready to come back to work, Lee."

The officer nodded, and I realized my hand was still hopelessly hanging there in the air. "I mean, I had heard about the accident… but I guess I thought… really, I guess I was hoping he was back on his feet by now." I dropped it back to my side and tried to ignore the look of pity Thawne sent my way. This wasn't what was supposed to be happening right now. I should be looking at the crime scene, not wasting my time with clearly ignorant officers who didn't understand what a coma meant.

"He'll be back on his feet soon enough," Detective West assured him, confidence not wavering in the slightest. I got the feeling part of the reason for such a show was that I was standing right next to him- the asshole.

I forced the smile on my face and tried again. "Yes, so I would appreciate it if I could get started by having a look at the crime scene."

"I hope so," Officer Lee completely ignored me. "The kid may not be the most reliable, through no fault of your own Detective West, but it's hard to picture the CCPD without him."

I was done. I pushed past the group of them, pulling some gloves out of my jacket pocket as I took in the victim. My whole body almost started trembling at the sight, but I forced it all back with the training I had mastered over the years. Still, it was one thing to see gruesome displays in pictures. It was another to have it lying on the pavement right in front of you. Pictures didn't give you the smell for one. Flies had already started gathering.

I knelt next to her, an elderly woman sprawled on the concrete. She was on her back, arms and legs thrown every which way impossibly. Her nightgown was crumpled and creased, a nice blue one with flowers that matched the slippers on her feet. Well, one slipper. The other was lying a few feet from her right arm. Shards of glass were below and to the side of her, and when I glanced up I could see a window on about the third floor had been broken. It must have been some kind of apartment building.

But what was the hardest was her face. Not a feature was distinguishable beneath the blood. I knelt next to her, gently probing it to get the extent of the damage. Teeth were broken on the right side of her jaw, right eye had definite bruising once you were able to find it in mess, blood had gushed from the broken nose but was nowhere on the pavement, and her skull had cracked at her temple- odd considering how she fell.

"So it appears the victim, Lynette Jennings, was thrown out of the window when she didn't cooperate," Officer Lee informed the two detectives as they made their way over to me. "Her apartment's basically cleaned out from top to bottom. By the time the neighbors heard anything it was too late. She had already hit the pavement." I rocked back on the balls of my feet, processing the whole thing like I had so many times. I took all the pieces of the puzzle and tried to make the picture. "I just hope it was quick for her. There's pictures of what looks to be her kids and grandkids upstairs."

"Get in contact with family yet?" Thawne asked. I'm guessing Office Lee either shook his head or nodded in way of answer, not the I cared much. Because my puzzle was looking a lot different than his.

"It was quick, but not because of the fall." I rose, piece of glass in my hand that I held up to the sun to check something. "She was dead before she was thrown out the window."

"Why do you say that?" West questioned, and I tried to ignore the challenge in his voice. There was no point in letting him rile me because I was about to knock his socks off.

"The first is Ms. Jennings herself. The right side of her skull if fractured in a way that would be an impossible angle if it was due to hitting the pavement on her back. She was struck with something in her apartment- a large rounder object from the imprint- and it killed her instantly. Then he broke the window and tossed her out it, explaining why the glass is all on the concrete but nowhere on the body. Plus, she has no cuts on her body nor does the glass have any blood on it. It happened beforehand. Also, there's no blood from her nose here. It all must be upstairs where she was killed." I turned back to the group, stripping off my gloves to put on a fresh pair.

Office Lee's jaw had dropped. Detective Thawne looked quite impressed and Detective West… well, he almost looked haunted in some way. Like he was seeing a ghost. "You got all that… in a minute?" Lee spoke up, voicing his clear disbelief.

"Yes. Now I'd like to go upstairs and take a look at that crime scene before all your officers go carelessly trampling through it." I hadn't meant to sound so cold, but their disbelief in my abilities was really starting to grate on my nerves a bit. Just because I was a temporary addition didn't give anyone cause to doubt my capabilities at doing my job. So what if I wasn't Barry Allen. It didn't mean I couldn't solve a murder in Central City. I wasn't enjoying my first big murder case, the thing I had dreamed about, and I couldn't help but blame Allen for it.

"Barry would like her," Officer Lee smiled, again ignoring me in favor of Detective West. "She might be able to keep up with him."

I was about to lose a bit of my cool and snap at him when Thawne of all people cut in. "I'll go with Porter upstairs. I'll see if any of the neighbors heard anything that can help us." He received a nod from his partner and the two of us made our way out of the alley towards the door to the apartments. Out of the vicinity of Lee I instantly cooled off, realizing how foolish I had almost been. I had a plan. A plan I needed to stick to if I was going to make this work. I was letting my ego get control of the situation and that would have cost me any goodwill I had accumulated if I kept letting it affect me, especially with West watching. I need to play this right- I had to be warm and friendly. Respect would come with time. Tune it out and do your job.

"Thank you," I told Thawne as he held the door open, meaning more than just that though. It was up to him to catch it though.

"You're welcome," he smiled warmly, making me wonder if he had. We started up the stairs, myself prepping with another pair of gloves from my pockets. "It was hard for me my first day too with Joe. He obviously had a great relationship with his last partner and I feel like I'm still trying to find a proper groove that I can fit into."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. I wasn't trying to be harsh though and realized how that must have sounded. I needed to fix that. "I just…" I guess I had to go with honesty. Otherwise I would risk alienating him and he was too close to West's ear for that. "People don't usually tell me things like that if they don't have to." It was true. I projected a lot of airs, but confidante had never necessarily been one of them. I wanted to be a friend, but I never wanted to be that much of a friend to people. That was getting in too deep. I didn't do deep, dark secrets. And I couldn't think of anything I had done different to make that start now.

He paused before speaking. "I just… I know what it feels like. To feel like a replacement for someone you don't know if you can live up to." He took a deep breath as we reached our floor and started down the crappy looking hallway with peeling wallpaper and a moldy smell. Good to see it matched the neighborhood. "You're doing great though."

I paused outside the door that had been taped off as well thankfully. At least they had the foresight to make sure no went poking around in there before I could look it over. I started examining the open door, especially the chain and lock. "No sign of forced entry."

I turned back to Thawne, realizing he wasn't quite willing to bookend our conversation just yet. He was looking at me like he was waiting for something. I hadn't given Eddie Thawne a lot of thought since I had arrived here, but now I took a minute to recognize how much more open he seemed than your usual Detective. His emotions were right there on the surface for anyone to find if you had some degree of ease with him, not buried under layers of control like West did. All you had to do was give him a moment of notice and you could pretty easily pinpoint what he was thinking, or at least I could. The fact that he seemed to trust me already to be this way was kind of baffling. It was a very strange thing for someone as guarded as myself to experience… and a little off-putting too.

"You're doing great too," I went with, thinking that was what he was hoping to hear for me. His face told me that I had landed in the right vicinity. And I added more just to further drive the point home, despite the trivial nature of it. "Now let's go show them what we've got."

With that, the two of us entered a very modest apartment in size. There was a small kitchen with a wooden table and chairs. And next to that was a single couch in the living area which framed the now broken window in all its glory. My eyes were instantly drawn to the table and the blood beneath it. I carefully took a sample, expecting we'd find it would match our victim. I also took note of what appeared to be a cracked teacup someone had tried to kick under the legs of the table very hastily.

My eyes went back up to the table, noting a still intact teacup in front of one of the chairs. "Well, there's the reason for no forced entry. She let them in. There's another cup under here."

"So she was serving her murderer tea?" Thawne voiced with disbelief, though it was disbelief in the situation and not in me.

"Looks like it," I deduced, eyes now scanning the rest of the apartment. Leave no stone unturned. Just as I had practiced so many times. "So she was sitting here with the murderer. There were no signs of a struggle… so he caught her by surprise. She was hit with a blunt weapon."

"Like a bat maybe?"

I shook my head. "She would have noticed if he had something like that. I doubt he would have pulled it without any fight from her." My eyes did another tour around the apartment and then they landed in the kitchen with a tell-tale spark.

I dug through my kit, finding my fingerprint dusting kit instantly with how tightly organized my bag was. I hovered over the stove, my eyes on the prize. I dipped the brush in the powder and crouched down so I could be at eye level. My face reflected back at me from the metal teapot sitting on the stove. A very solid metal teapot. "She wouldn't have noticed if he offered to pour the tea though." Gently as possible, I dusted the handle of the pot, refusing to breathe in case I disturbed anything. This was the key moment. I could feel it.

I didn't realize Thawne had crouched next to me until I heard his breathing. We both waited for a moment before seeing the powder cling in the tell-tale shape of a print. I could have screamed I was so excited. If this matched anyone… that would be it. I would have solved a murder… I would have solved a murder in thirty minutes in my first go.

Let's see Barry Allen do that.

I pulled out an evidence bag, handing it to Thawne to hold open. "Detective Thawne, I think we might have our murder weapon." I carefully picked the teapot up, realizing instantly it was still full and desperately trying to keep it from pitching forward. "And the asshole didn't even have the decency to empty it for us." I was slightly worried it would tear right through the bag, but Thawne managed to keep a firm grip on it until I could more tightly hold it with both of my arms, cradling it to my chest. I wasn't letting this bad boy out of my sight until we ran anything.

"Would you be willing to give me a ride back? I want to run this right away."

"Of course. Detective West could maybe get a ride from Officer Lee once they're done here." We made our way out of the apartment building and I was thankful to be breathing fresh air again, putrid as it may be. Thawne made his way over to where the two were still looking at the body, which had been covered now probably in case the media arrived. He gestured to me and they both turned to the probably unusual sight of a CSI cradling a heavy teapot like it was her firstborn child. But they didn't say anything to me at least and we made it back to the station pretty quickly.

It was starting to get late, so in theory I could extract the fingerprints and run them overnight. Thomas was making steak tonight after all which was probably my favorite meal after a good Big Belly burger. But what Officer Lee had said about me maybe keeping up with Barry Allen tickled in the back of my brain. It was a race right now and I was determined to win. Because in actuality Barry Allen was lucky if he could keep up with me.

I phoned Aggie to let her know, apologizing for missing story time tonight. She assured me it was okay as long as I caught the bad guy. She didn't even flinch when I mentioned it involved a murder, that's how cool my niece was. Got it from her mother probably because lord knew Thomas could barely handle a bloody nose without fainting. Needless to say he never visited Jenny at work.

I ran the fingerprints through the database, unable to keep still as I started pacing about the lab- turning various bottles in the right direction and maybe making a switch here or there. I know I had promised, but I was really anxious right now. They were lucky I wasn't taking this place apart from the bottom up at this point.

When the computer beeped, I held my breath as I made my way back over to it. And then I let out the loudest cheer that echoed off the walls when we had a match. I had done it. I had actually done it. I mean it was one thing to think you could. It was another to actually accomplish it. I couldn't help but start giggling right there and then.

On a hunch, I ran another quick test that was equally successful. I put all my papers in a very carefully labeled folder and nearly jogged down the stairs to the desk where Detective West was sitting. It was close to ten so most everybody had cleared out, including Detective Thawne. But that was perfectly alright. If there was anyone I wanted for this moment, it was my biggest critic.

"I found our murderer," I told him breathlessly, trying to sound more professional as I pulled it together and handed him the folder. "She invited him in and he offered to serve the tea she made. He then I think spur of the moment used it to crush her skull and then disposed of her out the window. So I ran the prints on the teapot… and they match The Dragon."

West's eyebrows nearly went into his hairline. "The Dragon as in the drug smuggler? Central City's biggest drug smuggler in fact?"

"The very one. They matched prints we've pulled from his busts in the past."

He combed through the results, deep in thought. "I don't know how much this will help us though. No one knows who he is- has ever seen him even."

Here came the best part. "Yes, but I had a hunch based off the fact that the victim obviously invited him into her home. I ran DNA of his against the victim's. They're related."

"Excuse me?"

"I have evidence he's a relative, but I strongly suspect the one and only The Dragon is a grandchild of Ms. Jennings. And only one of them has a record… just saying." I flipped through the pages of the folder until I reached a picture I had printed out of a young kid in his twenties. "I think he might be where we want to start." West didn't say anything and I soaked in how speechless he was as I threw my jacket on. "Now, I think this is where you take over. Have a good night." And that was how I solved a murder and effectively dismantled a drug ring with my first case. Thomas baked me a coffee cake for my efforts, which was honestly the greatest reward any human could receive for anything. It actually paled in comparison to the praise I received for Captain Singh for my work or the high five I allowed Detective Thawne to bestow upon me when he visited the lab the next day. No one mentioned any other CSI's and I was all too happy for it. I had carved out a place on the wall and now I just needed to keep going deeper. There's no day off when you're trying to win over the whole of the CCPD. Smiles were always on.

After that was when my mentality really shifted. Allen was now the competition and it was important to know your enemy when going into battle with him. So it was time to tackle The Board of Crazy.

I learned a lot about Barry Allen in the next few days, including any new articles I could track down from my own laptop at home. First, I learned he was white. Because I hated to stereotype but I had just kind of assumed since it was Detective West who raised him. I acknowledged my bigotry on the matter and quickly moved past it. Second, was that when I pulled up his current on file photo for the CCPD was that he kind of had a nice smile. It was cute. I could admit it. That was instantly followed by the thought that he looked dead-on like the scrawny nerdy kid who spent probably all of high school being tormented and could name every Star Trek captain or something. The kind who in my past experiences were just exhausting to talk to. Certainly not my type of person. I had tried to avoid them like the plague in my school days. It was for my benefit and their safety really.

So I don't think myself and Allen would have ever been friends in any lifetime based on appearance alone. Which was fine by me, because I didn't want to be and he was basically dead anyway.

That thought was only cemented when I next got into the tragic backstory. Oh, the tragic backstory. According to newspapers on his board and online articles I had skimmed, Dr. Henry Allen had been a paragon in the community. He lived a quiet life with his wife, Nora, and son. Everything was sunshine and roses. Smash cut to when Barry is eleven. His dad loses it for some reason, I mean there was no other evidence of abuse in the past, and stabs his wife to death in their living room with a knife. And Barry saw the whole thing. Dad was carted away and Barry went to live with a family friend by the name of Detective West. He grew up still in Central City with everyone knowing who his parents were and what he had seen. It was a wonder the guy was even still functioning... let alone kind of normal.

But after I dug up the report and looked over the statements, I found out that maybe there was some sanity slippage after all. Rather than admit and cope with the fact that he saw Dad stab Mom, Barry came up with a fantastical story to help him cope involving a man and lightening. It was pretty impossible and involved Barry being swept out of the house blocks away in the blink of an eye. It was this mysterious man who murdered his mother and his dad had only been trying to save her. Of course Henry Allen latched onto that as part of his story too- that he was innocent and it was someone else. Thankfully and understandably, nobody took Barry to heart and sent the murdering bastard straight to Iron Heights.

But hey, I got it. He was just a kid. A kid who didn't want to believe his dad was a horrible person. I did similar things when I was younger about my dad and the affair- that his other wife had kidnapped him or something awful. So it was okay he ended up with my mom while he was married.

There was a very clear difference between us though. I had grown up. I knew my dad wasn't a bad guy, but it was kind of awful what he had done. There was no denying it. But he seemed happy and Thomas's mom was actually super nice to me considering the circumstances. She didn't take the whole thing out on me, the child of the equation, and actually let me tag along with my other siblings as part of the family. It's pretty unbelievable to consider. I don't think I could have been that big of a person. I probably would have been the spitting image of Grandmother Agatha.

Allen though seemed to be stuck still. Maybe it was just the degree of trauma to what he saw, though I don't pretend to have a degree in psychology. He seemed to hold onto this belief still to the point he had a board in the police station tacked to the brim with cases that seemed similar in his mind. It may even be why he went into this field to begin with. I didn't doubt it. Similar cases though in that someone spouted something insane and impossible to inflate the story. Pilots going missing, safes vanishing into thin air, some person apparently robbing a bank with mind control. There were even receipts from a Chinese restaurant tacked up there for God know what reason. Maybe it was haunted or something. I had no clue.

It was all just a great big board of make believe. And his mother's own murder was right in the center of it. I looked up each and every single case in the following months, constantly shaking my head at how deep in this kid seemed to be. Sometimes he even tracked the case down a put himself on it. His signature was on a few crime scenes far outside his jurisdiction and was extremely lucky he hadn't been busted for it yet. He was trying to turn molehills into mountains when there had to be clear logical explanations. I even spent some time finding them as I combed the crime scenes and reports he had mentioned... none of them led to guy in lightening.

The worst crime was that this Board of Crazy was also probably the most organized thing in the entire office, chronicled by year with strings making a clear and connected path. I was almost insulted at the effort.

I had been tempted to take it down once I poured over all the pieces tacked on there and spent an endless amount of time staring at the picture of his father being carted away. I had once even had the trash can ready. But I couldn't do it yet. It seemed almost... insulting. At the very least I could let these delusions stand until I officially had the job. Then I was going to dedicate the space to real unsolved cases I was working on in my spare time, going through the overwhelming backlog of them we had. Maybe even solving some of the ones Allen couldn't it I could help it.

With all that information, that smile stopped being kind of cute real fast. It was actually kind of terrifying. Barry Allen was someone with clear mental issues who must have been good at hiding it given how everyone talked about him. It almost seemed like a good thing he was in a coma now honestly as dark as it was to admit. Maybe it was making Central City just a little bit safer from him snapping too. There was genetic precedent.

So I understood my competition intimately. He was a poor kid that everyone took pity on because of his haunted past. Everyone in the city had to know the story, and thus everyone in a way must have felt like they knew him. Pictures showed him in the courtroom, cameras snapping the poor kid in his tiny suit. I needed to overcome sympathy that made exceptions when he was late or acted quirky because he was poor Barry Allen.

My answer was to never need exceptions.

That meant I couldn't have a bad day. I mean of course I did, but no one could know that. I couldn't act out any behavior that would need to be excused later. I was never late. I made sure to say hello and make eye contact with every person I passed. I always had to have a smile on my face and carry myself with patience and respect for anyone or anything needing my time. Every person was the most important person in the moment- no exception.

Which is how I ended up going on a coffee date with Iris about five months in.

She had taken me up on my offer, visiting the lab quite often at first before making them more infrequent as time moved on. Her general idea was to always arrive before I did so that she could head out when I needed to get started after a few general words between us. About the weather, how each of us were doing, if I had a case, and I always made sure to ask about Barry. Though she remained optimistic in his waking up, it did seem her visits to his bedsides got to be less. She felt bad about it of course, but school was getting more intense and she was trying to work more hours at the local coffee shop. Yes, I knew these things about her despite my complete lack of interest.

It was during this expounding of her guilt one day that she had turned to me suddenly. "Do you want to go get coffee? I feel like I owe you for just letting me always go on like this."

I hadn't quite known how to answer at first. No, I did not. Iris West was proving to be a thorn in my side that ate up more time in her visits than I truly desired. I felt emotionally drained every time she left the lab, having to devote even more time to getting my head on straight before I got to work. I couldn't even imagine what would happen during a conversation over coffee.

But then there was the fact that this was Detective West's daughter. And though he never said anything, a slight defrost in his behavior made me wonder if Iris was fighting for me on the home front. Maybe she was starting to win him over in a way that my actions couldn't seem to. I had at this point won over most of the CCPD when it came to my abilities, but he remained skeptical. Less skeptical than when we began, but still giving me looks every time I entered a room. Sorry Allen wasn't waking up Joe. It wasn't like I was putting poison in his IV or something. That was all on him.

So I needed to keep Iris close, annoying as it might be. So I smiled, nodding. "Sure. I can meet you there for lunch since I don't have a case open right now. I'll let Captain Singh know."

"Cool. We can meet where I work. Know where to find Jitter's?"

"I actually had a date there once. I should be able to make my way over there from here pretty easily."

"Great." She grabbed a piece of paper from Allen's untouched desk, though I still dusted it once a week because insanity might overtake me otherwise. She scribbled something on it before handing it to me. "Here's my number. Just text me when you're heading out and I'll meet you there." In all honesty, Iris had a winning smile and it made it hard not to smile back at her. So I did, making a show of going to instantly plug her number into my phone as she left.

Around noon, I made my way downstairs with my coffee mug in hand. I stopped in with Thawne to let him know I was heading out for lunch today before making my way over to the familiar cup above the ringing doorway. The place was actually really big for a coffee shop, Iris waving to me from one of the many round tables that took up the room. Her eyebrow went up at the sight of my cup.

I didn't care to explain, but I knew I had to. I had to act like I wanted to be here and not tucked up in the lab right now. "Sorry, but I don't drink anyone's coffee except my brother's. Anything else would just feel like a straight up betrayal."

"It's that good?" There were no words to cover it. So I offered it to her and she took a quick sip. "Wow. Any chance we could hire him for here?"

"Sorry, but unless you have cloud mapping technology here I don't think he's going to go for it."

"Right. Eddie… Detective Thawne mentioned your brother was the famous Thomas Porter, Storm Reporter." I couldn't hide my roll of the eyes and she laughed. "I take it you're not a fan of the name?"

"I'm pleading the Fifth on that one," I quipped. "Though I will say it would be easier to love it if he didn't walk around the house calling himself that on a daily basis." I took another sip and she quickly excused herself to get herself a cup and a muffin for each of us despite my insistences. I looked over my surroundings as she stood chatting at the counter. Televisions were mounted on the walls and there was another area where some friends were lounging around the couches. The place didn't seem too busy in terms of people milling about, but it did seem that every minute the bell above the door rang to signal someone arriving. In a way it was all almost kind of comfortable. I felt like I didn't need to be so conscious of how I was acting for the moment.

"Here we are. I took you for a chocolate kind of girl." Iris took the seat across from me and slid a double chocolate chip muffin my way. "Mainly because everyone should be a chocolate kind of girl."

"I can't argue with that." I took a generous piece, trying to show her I appreciated the gesture. "Thank you."

"It's no big deal really. I get them for free since I work here. We can even grab one on the way out if you want." I took another bite, doing my best to keep crumbs from going everywhere. Though I'm sure Iris wouldn't judge me if I did. She was a nice person and I could almost say I was enjoying spending time with her. She certainly put you at ease pretty quickly, even in a new environment. I would rather keep meeting her here than see her in my lab again.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something." She reached a hand out to cover mind. "Something you cannot tell my dad- no matter what."

"Something tells me that won't be a problem. Your dad and I don't really do talking." I instantly regretted the words, realizing I was talking about her father here. I was maybe getting a little too comfortable and needed to measure my words more carefully. "I mean- "

"No. Trust me, no one knows how hard my dad can be on someone more than me. You shouldn't take it personally though," she insisted. "He's just worried about Barry and when he comes back. And I also think sometimes he doesn't want to get attached to you for when you do leave. Then it will hurt less when you do."

I didn't think so. But I kept that thought to myself. "So, what's the big secret?" Again, I didn't know why she was going to tell me something like this. I was never the type of person who got trusted with this kind of stuff. Maybe I was projecting an aura here that was a little too friendly. Because being friends with someone was all whole set of responsibilities I had neither the time nor the energy to tackle. I didn't want to be expected to contribute with items from my own life story, which I was starting to realize I had unconsciously. Oh, I was really slipping in my desperation to get Detective West to like me. I needed to realign myself and get back on track.

I did not want to be friends with Iris West. But yet here I was.

"Well… you see… Eddie and I are dating, secretly." Nope. No. I did not want to know this. This had bad vibes written all over it. I didn't want to hear anymore. I did not want to be trusted with this. I actually started to rise a bit in my chair unconsciously, eyes probably widening dramatically. Iris anchored me with the hand over mine though. "I know. I know. It's big. And it is guaranteed to make my dad flip if he finds out. Which is why you can't tell anyone."

My mind was still reeling- not about the information but how screwed I had officially become. But I shook my head a bit to clear things up- pushing my panic back to a far reach of my brain. There were a few pressing questions that I needed to clear up. "Why are you telling me this?"

I could tell that wasn't what she had been expecting. She rose a perfectly arched eyebrow and took a sip of her coffee. I felt a compulsion to fill in the silence, volunteering more information as I trailed my finger around the lip of my mug. "It's just… people don't usually tell me things like this. I'm not really someone people confide in. So I'm wondering what exactly I did I guess." So I can make sure it doesn't happen again.

"It was Eddie actually. He's been having a lot of trouble keeping this secret, especially since my dad is his partner. So then he suggested that maybe we talk to you since the two of you are pretty good friends." I shouldn't have been surprised when she said that. I had noted Thawne's tendency to trust others implicitly since our first case. We had lunch together practically every day at this point- it became necessity to actually spend some time downstairs amongst everyone. I couldn't keep hiding up in the lab if I was to become an institution in this place. Detectives had to see me around, and sitting with Thawne at his desk for lunch was a beneficial way to do that. It even put me close to a mostly silent Detective West.

But it wasn't like we talked about the most serious topics. The conversations were purposely on my part kept as banal as possible, never straying outside cases or the weather. Nothing either of would really remember the next day. For me it meant we were acquaintances, but for Thawne this must have been enough to make me a trustworthy friend.

"Wow," I managed once I had finally processed this. "I just… I didn't know he viewed me so highly. I-I appreciate you trusting me enough to tell me this." I really didn't, but she didn't need to know that. This was unfortunately getting complicated, but I might just be able to handle it. "Don't expect you're going to like be able to come up to my lab and make out now." She laughed at that. "I'm serious. Just because I know now doesn't mean I want to see it."

And that was pretty much that. There was indeed one attempted make-out session in my lab, but I arrived early that day in time to chase them both out with chemicals. I was doing my best to ignore the fact that I knew anything to avoid trouble, though it did make it hard when Thawne would talk about his dating "some girl" when West wasn't around. It was clearly doing him some good though not having to hide it from everyone. I even felt touched enough by his apparent friendship that for the first time I volunteered up information about my niece Aggie during lunch one day. He ate it up. Iris continued to visit me up in the lab, now when I was working, and would spend a bit of time asking for advice or that I talk to Thawne about something. I told her I was definitely not the person to come to and there was no chance in hell I was getting tangled up in things between the two of them. She seemed to respect that at least.

Speaking of Aggie, I did keep the promise I made to her when this all started. Naturally, there were quite a few nights I had to work late on cases- the Particle Accelerator seemingly pushed aside in favor of actual goings on's at the moment. Central City seemed to have awoken from their shocked state and was back in business, though the criminals were certainly getting a bit odder. I was tempted to pin some of it on Allen's Board of Crazy because they seemed to fit him like a glove. But those days I always made sure to call and let the family know and Aggie would grant me a reprieve from story time as long as I caught the bad guy. To her, I was some kind of superhero and I was doing everything in my power to live up to that. Even if I was home for dinner I pretty much called her every day at three when she got home from school, checking in and getting a preview of the stories that awaited me. The calls seemed to get extra important once Roger was born, Aggie needing some extra reassurance that she was still important. Because after seven years of being alone, she naturally got a bit of that sibling resentment for the screaming infant.

Roger Cornelius Porter, I am not even kidding, came into the world about three and a half months into my time at the CCPD. She was late, so the plan was firmly set in place. If it was a school day I was to retrieve Aggie from class and take her to the hospital to wait along with calling his parents. His mom had missed the last grandchild since she was on a vacation to Tahiti with some friends and was hell bent on making this one, especially when she learned my mom had been around to assist. Lord knows our other siblings weren't making any progress so this might be her only chance for a while.

I had been filling out some paperwork downstairs with one of the Detective's to close up a case that had been giving me hell last week. We seemed to have reached a conclusion involving the maid though, and now the only task would be to find her since she fled the country. It was at the time the weather came on the news, myself easily being able to block out Thomas until he literally shouted my name.

" _Lindsey!_ " My head shot up, seeing he was practically bouncing in front of the camera. " _I don't know if you're watching this, but they're telling me off screen that Jenny just called._ " Leave it to my brother to turn this into something so grandiose. It seemed like he was having to be restrained from just running off camera. " _It's time. She's at the hospital. I'm going to be a dad! Again!_ " With that, he vanished off screen before poking his head back in again. " _And if she's not, could someone at the CCPD let her know? That's my sister, Lindsey Porter_." All eyes shifted to me and I sighed. " _Thanks. Thomas Porter, Storm Reporter. Go take the world by storm, everyone._ " Well, at least he hadn't forgotten the catchphrase.

I quickly shuffled into the Captain's office, for the first time leaving work early in my time here. He offered my tomorrow off, but I quickly declined. I felt bad enough about this. But then again, this was my family. They were more important than filling out paperwork all day.

I called both sets of parents as I made my way over to Aggie's school, both sets instantly ready to drop everything and make it over here before the other. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too much drama because I seriously don't think I could handle it. Jennifer had already spoken to the school weeks before, so a simple ID check was all it took to lead my niece out the door with her green backpack bouncing behind her. She was naturally very excited, but also having the fears I'm sure an older child went through.

"What if Mom and Dad forget about me?"

"They never could," I assured her. "Your dad and I are seven years apart and our parents love us both. Plus, they have your other three Aunt's and Uncle in between, all of which they love too. Parents have the magical ability to make love out of nothing, rather than steal love from one and pass it onto the other. So there's nothing to worry about."

It did seem to put her at ease, though her crying brother certainly had been grating since his birth to her. There were naturally a few fits, but I had managed to pinch hit in talking to her about how much Roger actually needed a big sister like her. Yes, he was just a baby now but he was going to grow up and needed someone to help with all the important parts of life. Soon, Aggie was reading to him every day from her textbooks, claiming she was making it easier for him when he grew up. I had never been prouder of my aunt skills in that moment.

I had been called in a lot the following months, helping my brother keep everything running smoothly around the house. I even cooked a meal or two just to give him some time to take a nap. I cleaned up the house whenever I could. I took Aggie to school some mornings when Roger was putting up an extra fuss. I would babysit Roger and keep him occupied with all the ridiculously complicated toys that had been bought for him. My childhood had been wooden blocks, so I mostly kept to that. We built all the towers. Thomas and Jenny were eternally grateful, and honestly it just felt good to be needed. I was really starting to itch for my own place though.

All the parents had arrived at the hospital after I had contacted my other siblings: Jane the nurse, Theresa the drummer in a band called Lost Stars, and Joshua the accountant. They had all been surprised to hear from me but asked I make sure to text them only when we had news. I wasn't surprised. They generally kept their distance from everyone for one reason or another, be it affair or simply being ridiculously rebellious. We all sat and waited- I had bought Aggie an adult coloring book from the gift shop to keep her occupied. She found them more challenging than the "baby ones".

There was the natural bickering. His mom didn't know why our dad had to bring my mom. Other Mom, as I called her growing up, may have had kindness in spades for me as a victim of this whole mess but her kindness didn't extend to Mom in any respect. She absolutely loathed her with all the dark feelings within her. And it was hard to keep that bottled up in a hospital waiting room as the hours stretched on. I had managed to get between the two sides more than once, threatening that Aggie was paying attention so they all needed to get it together or no one would be seeing the baby. They knew I could convince Thomas to deliver and they mostly quieted. My nerves were getting pretty shot by this point now.

I had nearly laughed when Thomas came out and told us the name. Somehow he had topped himself. I knew it was after both their father's and he had the decency to put ours as the middle name, but this kid was going to have it even worse at school. Everyone else seemed to love it though, my dad having a tear in his eye. Labor had gone long into the night- it now being close to ten in the evening. I fired a quick text off to my siblings as they all talked, Aggie asleep in my lap, and after a moment of thought sent one off to Eddie and Iris. I knew I would regret it later, but right now I was sleep deprived and just wanted someone of mine I could tell after being around everyone. And their responses of excitement were enough to put a smile on my face.

Aggie and I were the first to go back. I stepped into the hospital room to see Jenny bouncing quite possibly the cutest baby I had ever seen in my life. His face was beet red and he was screaming, but it was unbelievably endearing. He seemed to know the commotion that had gone on for his birth and had in my opinion the winning response to all of it. I have a picture of him on my desk, right next to Aggie's school picture. They let me hold my newly minted godson, and I swore I was going to find a cool nickname to call him to spare his fate as well. I was currently still working on it.

I had managed a few hours of sleep before coming back into the CCPD. Other Mom had stayed overnight and was ushering Aggie off to school. I was surprised by how many well wishes I received from everyone, even those I hadn't really spoken to before. Even Detective West had managed to put in a kind word before promptly going back to ignoring. The only other time we'd come even close to that goodwill was one incredibly awkward lunch across from one another when Thawne took a sick day. For some reason, I still made my way down to his desk for lunch and put up with West staring at me the whole time like I was insane. We had managed a few polite words about Iris, but that was about it. The next day I just stayed up in my lab until Thawne got over the flu.

The door to the office opened and I was pulled from my thoughts as Captain Singh entered the room, thick folder under his arm. He wordlessly took a seat across from me, taking the mug I extended him with a thanks. "I need this today." He took a long sip before looking at me. "So, Human Resources has decided to bring something to my attention."

My heart leapt, but I tried to look puzzled. "Sir, is something wrong? Did I do something?"

"Quite the contrary. You've been excellent. Our turnover rate for cases has decreased these last few months and I can't help but attribute most of it to you."

"Thank you sir, but it's mostly a team effort."

"Everyone around here likes you and thinks you're pleasant to work with. You're always on time and we have to force you to take days off. Your brother makes the best coffee. You've been a better fit than I could ever have imagined."

"Then why am I here?" I kept playing the confusion, humble angle. I had come too far to trip at the finish line now.

"There is a law in place regarding temporary positions. It states that if you've held the position from another person for a time greater than six months… the position becomes yours permanently." I could tell it was weighing heavy on him, so I needed to play this perfect. I couldn't look like I wanted this.

"But Mr. Allen- "

"His condition hasn't changed and it's been nine months." He placed the folder on the desk, opening it. "The fact of the matter is it's time for this department to move on. And it's hard to comprehend, but it does make it slightly easier knowing it will be you filling the spot."

I wanted to sign right there, but instead I nodded sympathetically. "I'm so sorry it had to be like this, Captain. I wish more than anything he would have taken his job back." I took then pen, playing with it. Here it was. The moment I had been waiting for. My humility swelled to full force, the world my stage as I prepared to take the final step. "But I'll try to make him proud… and maybe when he does wake up-"

The door was thrown open and Detective West nearly ran in, face contorted in a smile I was convinced he could never make. "Barry's awake!"

I dropped the pen.

There had been several more sentences, but I missed nearly all of them as my mind went somewhere completely out of reach. Detective Singh asked for the room, sliding the contract away and closing the folder. I had merely nodded and proceeded up the stairs to the lab like a zombie. Thawne had tried to catch my attention, but I blew right past him.

I went right for my desk, nearly falling into my chair. I had spent the last few months rearranging everything, planning for the inevitable. The whole room made sense now in a way it hadn't before, chemicals placed where they should be and the Board of Crazy tucked in a far corner. The only thing I hadn't touched was Barry's desk.

It was over. He was awake. He was going to come back. I was going to lose my job. Everything I had worked for these past nine months had gone up in smoke with one sentence.

I let out a cry and swept my hand over Allen's desk, sending everything to the floor. I instantly regretted it though, placing everything back in the manner that was seared into my brain from looking at it so many times. It wasn't fair. This couldn't be happening. It had to be some kind of trick. I didn't want to go back home. I had done everything right, but Allen was here first so it all went to him. Never had the shadow over my shoulder worn a bigger smile.

It all crashed into me then and I couldn't help the sobbing noises the came out of my throat as I placed the last piece of Barry's things in its spot. I buried my face in my arms, crying violently as everything slipped from my fingers. I didn't care if West or Singh came up here and saw me like this. It served them right. They just had to hold out hope in someone who was supposed to be dead. I didn't want to call anyone either. How could I tell them? God, why was this happening to me? Who had I pissed off? Why wouldn't the ghost of Barry Allen just remain so, the bastard?

I don't know how long I stayed like that before I heard a voice behind me. "Excuse me." It wasn't one I recognized, so I did my best to ignore it. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder which I shook off instantly. "I'm sorry, but are you okay?" There was a beat. "Stupid question. Of course you aren't. You're crying over my desk. So maybe I should say what's wrong?"

That caught my attention. But I knew there was no way. It had only been a few hours at the most. I turned, squinting through my swollen red eyes to see him towering over me. Oh, there was no mistaking the person in a black jacket standing above me. Everything was just as it had been in the picture, tousled brown hair, brown eyes, and a tall gangly frame. One of his hands was extending a tissue box towards me. The other awkwardly hovered at his side, unsure what to do. And then there was that smile- the most sympathetic smile I had ever seen. A smile that for anyone else would bring a surge of comfort.

It just pissed me off. He did not get to feel bad for me. He did not just get to swoop in here and comfort me. Not when he was the one stealing everything from me. I had never hated a smile more than the one that graced his face. It brought all nine months screaming back and the conclusion was still the same. This bastard had woken up and stole my job, a job I cared about far more than him judging by stories. He just cared about his Board of Crazy. But yet, he got everything. And I was just a crying girl on the floor.

No. I was going to fight. I had earned this. I had worked for this. I needed to go talk to Captain Singh right now, my performance before be damned. He wasn't winning. I wouldn't let him.

So I did the only thing I could think to do. I took the tissue box from him gently, watching him smile grow as he waited for me to say something. Instead, my eyes narrowed and I threw it at his face with all the force I had. I even let out a growling cry of fury as I did so, which seemed to take him really off guard. And with that, I stormed out of the lab without ever looking back. I didn't even know if I had hit him. There was no sound of impact, but I was so close I couldn't have missed.

"Hey!"

I didn't dignify him with a response. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. This was the man I hated more than anything and he wasn't getting a word out of me. Besides, I was going to make sure we never had to see each other ever again. He might as well still be in a coma when I was done.

"Hey! Wait!"

Barry Allen could go screw himself.

XXX

 _And there we are. Mr. Allen has entered the picture and now things really begin. Thank you so much for your patience as I put this one together and took a minute to consider that finale going forward turning everything upside down, and I'm excited to get started on the series proper. I'm amazed at how much this has grown in two short chapters and am excited for it to keep growing with all of you. There's going to be a lot of fun adventures and interactions going forward as Lindsey gets pulled in and meets everyone else._

 _Thank you to those following this story. I hope it was worth the wait: Nisse Blackthron, Wolverine123, Digital-Pineapple, LupaMalum, VampirePrincess11, inescc, bookworm12091, ToughLove726, Gunreal, LuckGoddess, Amelia Mae Scott, Just Lindesey, Invisible to Life, Owllover16, Heatherstrike, MattivanLoo, nora9gina, AnotherStripedSweater, spycat, Aurora02, inescapableconfusion, 00Deity, and blackashrose1313._

 _Thank you to those who count this story as a favorite after merely two chapters for your faith: Nisse Blackthorn, heroherondaletotherescue, April Marciano, Vampire Princess11, inescc, SerakusRa666, LuckGoddess, Schni10, MattivanLoo, Justrayawsome, and blackashrose1313._

 _And thank you to those who commented for your words and encouragement. I love and cherish every single one: CompYES, Yoli, Aku, heroherondaletotherescue, and artchaser._


	4. Assistant

_Assistant_

I stormed my way down the marble steps of the CCPD lobby, literally seeing red on the edges of my vision as I took the steps two at a time. I took a moment to be glad I had decided to go with sneakers, otherwise this would be all kinds of difficult right now.

"Hey! Wait!" Allen's voice shouted from the top of the steps. He seemed determined to catch me, but I just had to get into Singh's office and shut the door behind me. He didn't get to be my knight in shining armor. He didn't get to haunt me. I just had to beat him there, and since he had just woken up from a coma today his ability to walk should be slightly impaired. Hey, actually now that the thought struck me how the hell was he fully functioning in my lab when he had just woken up a few hours earlier? What kind of witchcraft was that?

"Lindsey?" a voice caught my attention as I hit the bottom of the stairs. I saw Iris seemed to have been waiting at the bottom, wool jacket draped over her arm. Her face lit up with that warm smile at the sight of me, only to drop when she got a good look at me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I tried to move past her, but she barred my way. Barry was about halfway down the stairs now, probably relieved that his adoptive sister managed to stall the current target of his attention- the crazy girl who had seemingly thrown a tissue box at him for no reason.

"You've been crying," she responded simply, clearly not buying my act at all. And why should she? I was completely off book and out of character right now. I was letting my emotions get the best of me in all the wrong ways. I was letting him get to me in all the wrong ways. Letting him under my skin with a smile and a few words. Letting him wreak havoc on the system of control I had long mastered when it came to projecting my emotions. If I was going to pull this off and remain here, I had to keep my own values in mind. I had to remember that I wasn't allowed to have a bad day.

I finally came to a halt in front of her, and she put a hand to each of my arms to keep me anchored just in case I decided to run. "Something's wrong. I can tell, so what's going on." Her eyes suddenly widened as a thought struck her. "Is something wrong with Aggie?"

The words struck me as quite odd, but I quickly was able to puzzle together why she had said them. In a world where I never had a bad day, something happening to Aggie was in her mind the only thing that could set me off like this. The Lindsey Porter she knew would never get like this over her job, so it had to be something much bigger. And these beliefs were making her show a level of concern I don't know if I was comfortable with. I didn't want nor need it in any capacity. The red faded from my view and I took a deep breath, steadying myself mentally and physically.

Her eyes had drifted to Allen now, who had abruptly turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs and was but a few steps from us if the squeak of his shoes was to be believed. I only had a few moments before Iris might be looking at me a little different once she found out I assaulted her adoptive brother because he had the audacity to wake up from a coma. Despite not wanting the level of friendship it seemed we had, I certainly didn't want to lose any ground either.

Fire and rage wouldn't win this battle. It had been immature of me to think that. What I needed to do was the complete opposite- make it so that Barry Allen never sees me as a threat.

I needed to play this perfectly. It had to be the best performance of my life.

So I opened my mouth, but then pretended to notice him out of the corner of my eye. I quickly turned around, eyes narrowing and a finger pointing in his bewildered direction. "Listen, you need to stop following me. I don't know who you are, I don't know how you got in this building let alone my lab, but I will get a detective to escort you out of here, okay? So just... leave me alone."

I didn't think it was possible for him to look any more confused than before, but somehow his brow even knitted further together as his confusion only grew. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Iris give Barry a quick apologetic look before focusing on me. "Umm… Lindsey, do you know who that is?"

I shook my head emphatically, trying to make my voice a little panicky with a few stilted breaths. "I was just up in my lab, taking a moment after an admittedly rough murder case, and then he was just hovering above me and smiling." He took a step forward, both hands up, but I whirled back around on him quickly. "Don't-don't come closer." He halted, looking pleadingly at Iris once again. "I threw something and ran to get someone and he followed me shouting." I took a purposefully long breath, giving myself a moment to come to a realization before raising an eyebrow in her direction. "Wait, are you saying you know him?"

She stepped around me to come between us, hand slipping in mine as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I tried not to instantly reel back, completely uncomfortable with it. Physical contact as a form of comfort was completely outside my wheelhouse very purposefully. Iris and I were going to have to set up some boundaries after this, because she seemed to consider our friendship to be a completely different beast than how I saw it.

"Lindsey, this is Barry Allen." I brought both hands to cup my mouth, eyes widening hopefully enough to be effective but not too much to be comical. "Barry, this is Lindsey Porter. She's the CSI that was filling in for you."

"You're Barry Allen," I repeated. He nodded, small smile breaking across his face once again. "Oh, you're Barry Allen. I just… I just threw a tissue box at Barry Allen's head."

"You did," he nodded. He didn't appear to be upset in the slightest though, just as I suspected. "Probably not the best line of defense if ever really attacked, but I should give you points for thinking on your feet."

"I'm so sorry," I apologized, forcing down the bile that came with the words with a smile. "I am so sorry. You just scared me and I reacted." I put my hands down. "Please tell me you're okay. Hitting someone in the head after they just woke up from a coma cannot be good."

"I'm fine," he insisted, smile becoming wider. "Really. I'm sorry for scaring you like that. I just… I didn't think that someone else would be up there. People usually avoid it if they can help it."

Common ground. Get common ground. "I know. It's like the place is haunted or something." I took a step forward, extending my hand. "It's so good to see you awake. Iris told me all about you and I was really hoping we'd cross paths one day." I turned to see she was smiling now, clearly happy this moment had finally come to be. Her brother back in the CCPD- her complete and utter faith rewarded.

"Thanks for taking care of everything in the lab. I really appreciate it. Lindsey, right?"

And just like that, I had turned a disaster of a meeting into what he was probably considering an adorable misunderstanding. He obviously didn't suspect a thing, and that was just the way I liked it.

Sometimes I even scared myself.

"That's me. Lindsey Porter." He opened his mouth, but I already went to beat him to it with a knowing smirk. "Yes, he is my older brother. No, the name certainly wasn't my idea though."

Iris hit him on the arm repeatedly before he could answer. "Barry. I think my dad sees you." We all glanced through the glass doors to see Joe West, face alight in a way that finally drew comparisons between him and his daughter. Allen instantly started over that way without another word, Iris right behind him. As he got closer more detectives noticed his approach, and promptly annoyed me with just how enthusiastic they all looked about it. You give them the best nine months of your life and then they just forget about you.

I followed the other two, but hung back by the open door. I tried to look as delighted in the upcoming reunion as the rest of the station did though, mimicking their smiles right back at them. The last thing I needed was Joe West thinking I was trying to destroy a family reunion. We had grown to some sort of tolerance, though I expected that to sharply decline now that I was no longer his only option to solve cases. He pulled Allen in for a huge hug, looking to be almost in tears. "Oh, you scared the hell out of us, kid."

An older detective approached as Joe pulled back, keeping a firm hand on his shoulder though. This family seemed big on their physical contact. "Yeah, that was quite the nap you took there, baby face, and you still look twelve." Everyone chuckled along, clearly in a better mood than I was feeling.

Eddie had been hanging back at his desk as well, though the looks he was giving Iris were almost insulting in how obvious they were. His gaze drifted over and met mine, raising his hand in a silent wave. After a beat of debate, I did the same.

"You look okay," West took Allen in. "Are you really?"

"Yeah," he assured him. I don't know how though. It had literally been hours since he had awoken from his nine-month coma. How the hell was he this adjusted already? I mean, he could have at least had the decency to stay in bed catching up on everyone's Facebook feeds and the news.

A female officer popped in as well now, making her way right over to the group, clipboard in her hand. "Detective West, we've got a five one-five in progress at Gold City Bank. Two dead." Armed robbery. The third armed robbery since I'd been here in fact. The other two had been one person. The guy was good, seemed to time his robberies perfectly with big storms to erase any traces he left behind. The last bank had been nearly blown over with no hope of finding a print or accessing a camera. And despite not a drop of rain occurring, it was almost like a thick mist had come through and coated every surface a print could be left on. Even I in my frustration had admitted he knew has his weather patterns down to a science. He was like my brother if he ever went to the Dark Side.

"Storm's picking up on the South side. I'd grab your rain gear," the officer continued. So it had to be our guy then. Well, I was going to make sure he didn't win Round Three if I could help it. Time to go to work. I stepped forward from the wall, throwing my hair roughly back up in its ponytail.

"I'm sorry, Barry," West apologized. "I got to run."

"Do you need my help," Allen inquired, and I actually had to restrain myself from rolling my eyes. I was literally right here. Give me at least one day before you steal everything back.

"No, you take it easy," West thankfully disagreed. "There'll be plenty for you to do once you settle in. We'll let Porter handle this one." He grabbed his coat before finally turning to me. "Let's see if you can get him this time."

Detective West had a habit of saying that to me before we'd head out on a case. Pretty close to every time. Guaranteed if this was committed by a known repeat offender we hadn't put behind bars yet. I could never quite tell whether it was a dig or not. Part of me wanted to believe after the whole Dragon drug ring business that is was a sign of respect. The rest of me knew that little optimistic part had nothing to go on with that. But still, I had hope he wasn't being that obvious about how little he thought of me.

"Here's hoping," I answered, as I typically did. Maybe it was just our thing. Maybe we had a thing. A thing was good. A thing meant bonding. I quickly looked to Allen to see if the words we exchanged were at all familiar to him, but he showed no signs of it. So at least if it was a thing it wasn't a hand-me-down one from his days as CSI. Which was good, because I don't think I could add that to my day if it was. "Detective Thawne?" I asked, looking past the group to Eddie next to his desk.

"Grabbing it now." He bent down for a moment before emerging with one of my large cases of supplies. I had decided to store one downstairs in case I got called in while on lunch or something of that nature. Didn't want to waste time we didn't have running upstairs to grab mine. When looking for a place to store it, Eddie had of course volunteered to clear out the bottom drawer of his desk to help me out. I'd been hesitant at first, but of course he had insisted until finally I just handed it over to him. And now he practically served as its keeper, fetching it whenever necessary to hand off to me. Eventually I just started going with it. The constant willingness to help one out was just another thing someone annoyingly had to put up with when they had his friendship.

And also just another little way I had stream-lined a thing or two around here if I do say so myself.

"Then let's go, partner." Detective West announced before blowing past me right out the door. I waited for Eddie though, noticing the odd look Allen was giving him as he gave him a pat on the back.

"Hey, Allen. Good to see you."

Allen shook off his confusion to smile warmly at him. "Thanks, Eddie."

"Hey, Iris," he turned his attention to his secret girlfriend, making me roll my eyes once again at the clear underlying fondness in his tone. Subtlety was definitely not his strong suit. I would never be telling him any sort of secret, that's for certain. And not just because I never told anyone secrets.

Iris clearly had the same feeling as well, though her game face was a lot stronger in looking completely impartial to the man in front of her. "Detective, you should go. My dad doesn't like to be kept waiting."

He seemed to realize his error, quickly nodding and returning attention to Allen. "Glad you're back." He then made his way over, handing me my bag before we both started for the elevator. I gave Iris a last friendly wave before I did so, glad to leave her with Allen here.

"You know, if you want to keep your secret relationship that, maybe don't say her name like she's your girlfriend you're deeply and madly in love with in front of the group the secret is from," I couldn't help but rib him as I pulled a rain jacket from one of my side pockets. I had made sure to add it after the first robbery soaked me to the bone.

Just another demonstration of my efficiency- my strong capability to adapt.

"I did not," he shot back lamely as Detective West held the elevator door for us. I just shot him a look before the two of us stepped in, burying this conversation until we were alone again. Because my being the only one in on this secret meant I got to hear about Iris from Eddie every chance he got. In the lab when he could sneak up there, during lunch when West had the day off, when I was at home sometimes I would just get a random text about some wonderful attribute of hers. You'd think I was dating her with the stuff I knew.

Our drive started off in the usual comfortable silence- I combed through the bag making sure it had everything I thought I would need and what I could afford to restock when we got back to the CCPD. Mostly I tried to keep my mind off the situation with Barry Allen miraculously recovering from a coma in time to steal away everything I had like he had planned it.

It wasn't working very well.

But as a problem solver, an excellent one if I said so myself, that just meant I needed to focus my energies on finding a solution now. Because he was here. Oh boy, was he here. I needed to find a way to keep my job without flying into a blind rage in Detective Singh's office as I almost had. I also couldn't wave the six-month rule in his face because that would blow my cover when he asked how I was aware of it and why it hadn't been brought up before. I was also ruling out pushing Allen down a flight of stairs, though barely.

Mist started to cover the street in a way that made it near impossible to see in front of you, just like it had for the other two. Detective West switched on the light with a flick of his wrist. "Your brother failed to mention this this morning." I looked to see people running through the streets desperately ducking into alcoves or building as they feared the storm approaching. Not one had an umbrella.

"Well, trust me when I say he's going to hear about it." And he did. Hundreds of voicemails, e-mails, and even letters to the house demanding he pay for his heinous crimes or even be replaced for failing Central City in its moment of need. Some sent bills for dry-cleaning or replacing expensive purses. These last few storms had certainly proved the case, especially the second when he swore the sun would be so present he hadn't even brought his coat to work that day. Cue the fog. Cue the panic and complaints about the mist. Cue his bafflement because the radar showed every sign of being clear and this had come out of literally nowhere. Cue the letters for his head among other things. He had taken it quite hard the first few times from our phone calls, but now he had learned to roll with the punches and not even read any of them. No weatherman was perfect after all.

Yes, ladies, not even the famed Storm Reporter.

We pulled up to the bank, about six police cars having beat us here. Their lights were still blinking rapidly, which usually wasn't a good sign for me. An 'In Progress' crime meant one thing and one thing only. Detective West turned back to address me.

"I'll wait right here," I promised. I was never allowed anywhere near even perceived danger, which honestly was perfectly fine by me. I wasn't a cop or a detective. I was CSI. I was fragile.

The two of them climbed out of the car and proceeded towards the bank, waving me over a few moments later. I geared myself up, mentally putting the ghost of Allen and his work behind me, and made my way up the stairs to the interior of the bank. Third time was the charm.

Disappointment hit me the moment we entered. It looked pretty much the same as the other two- random citizens scattered about in shock, water soaking through my sneakers as I walked across the floor, and a general sense of misery that pervaded the enormous building. The difference in this one was the shards of stained glass that littered the ground, obviously having come from the huge opening in the ceiling above us. Everyone moved about carefully because of it, cops gently escorting people from the building through what looked to be the safest route.

"That face tells me we should be expecting more of the same," Detective West commented. I instantly shook the look off and narrowed my eyes in determination.

"I guess we won't know until I canvas every inch of this place, will we?" I squared my shoulders and made my way over to the desks, hoping our guy at least had the decency to touch it at some point. That would be really stellar of him. I glanced up through what had once been a skylight to see the clouds looked to waning just as quickly as they had come.

The desk was completely soaked, but it didn't stop my attempts to canvas it for any dry area and trying to print that spot once I found one. Naturally, nothing was going my way though and I found myself getting a bit frustrated at the whole situation as every possibility came up empty. I knew I was getting inside my own head and made for another room of the bank, needing a moment to just breathe because this day sucked. Like really sucked. I found an office and leaned against one of the tables, hand balling into a fist as I tried to get temper locked down. I couldn't go back out there like this. Lindsey Porter didn't have a bad day.

"You know; you shouldn't beat yourself up like this." I whirled around, ready to throw my brush as whoever had entered the room, only to find none other than Detective West in the doorway. Great. Apparently the day wasn't done with me yet. "If you can't find anything, then there's nothing to find. That's it. Nothing any of us can do." I of course wanted to disagree with him, but fearing it would come out in a very loud manner I held myself back, swallowing my words to only a couple.

"Not the best note to go out on though." There. I had admitted it out loud. And I hated myself for doing this, for showing West of all people some of my headspace. But I felt desperate to say it at this point, figuring it might make him happier than any other words I could have said to him. He didn't have to pretend to be nice to me, not now.

He took a few steps forward, closing the gap between us with a sigh. "I've been rough on you."

I instantly bristled, shaking my head. "You don't have to do this."

He seemed to ignore me though. "You did a lot of good work, Porter."

Even I wasn't this desperate for affirmation at this point. I was unable to take anymore and made my way around him, determined to just get back to work because anything would be better than this talk in this room right now. I wasn't his daughter. I wasn't his anything. I didn't need his platitudes, even at rock bottom. I was better than that. "I have work to do."

"Just- "I turned the corner before I could hear anymore, making sure to keep myself close to a cop at all times as I canvased the bank for the rest of the morning. I didn't want to give Detective West the opportunity to continue his sermon. This is why you never give anyone an inch, because they then have an excuse to take a mile. And judging by the look of indifference I was given when we did cross paths, it looked like whatever kindness he had been trying to show me was left in that office. We were back to how things were meant to be. No more inches. No more miles.

I finished an hour or so later with just as much luck as before in terms of prints or any sort of identification. The water had basically washed away any chance I had. I was half-tempted to call my brother myself and complain at his complete inability to prepare me for this day. Which just reminded me I still had to tell him. I started a text message but then deleted all of it, knowing this was the kind of thing someone did in person. Might as well wait to tell everyone at dinner before coming up with a diabolical evil plan to turn my luck around. Maybe Aggie would have something good that didn't involve flights of stairs.

I got a ride back with Detective West and Eddie, keeping mostly to myself as the sun started to peek out of the clouds once again. My shoes were completely soaked through to my socks, causing me to flinch internally every time I moved my toes around. Luckily, with me being who I was, I had a pair of perfectly comfortable flats tucked away up in the lab. I usually used them on long days of standing around, but they would work well enough to get me through the rest of the day. Bar Barry Allen hadn't poured chemicals over my desk and belongings yet.

Which he probably wouldn't. He seemed nice in the infuriating kind of way when you were trying to hate everything about him. But then again, you never really knew with the crazy ones. Reminder to myself to try and make sure I was with someone else around him at all times... just in case.

But no, the lab was empty when I stopped up there. It appeared Allen and Iris had left pretty quickly after the group of us did. I changed shoes, logged the complete lack of evidence I had in the form of a pen he might have used that had no obvious fingerprints, and then stocked my kit to take back downstairs. It had been quite crowded when we came in- seems the officers had brought over as many witnesses from the bank as were willing. Hopefully that would lead us somewhere, because it seemed the third strike was leaving us just as blind as the first two.

Eddie was by his desk as I dropped the bag into its assigned and labeled drawer. He seemed to be getting ready to interview someone from the paperwork he was putting together, but made a point of talking to me before he began. "Hey, so I was thinking we could go out and grab lunch today. My treat."

I rose an eyebrow at him skeptically. "What's the occasion?"

"Just... I know my friend." I scoffed, but he continued. "I know today's been a rough day for her with everything going on." I went to disagree, but apparently I was getting too predictable these days. "But I also know that she will never admit that in any degree out loud or... probably even to herself."

I crossed my arms, debating how to handle this. This could be my chance to set the record straight, make my point of view clear and crystal. I wanted to be on the same page finally. But somehow Eddie considered himself to be a good friend of mine, and something in me didn't want that to stop. I wish I knew what it was so I could stop it, but for the moment with all the feelings I had brewing in me I just couldn't bring myself to. So I finally settled on honesty, but with some biting wit and not actually admitting anything. "You're learning. That worries me greatly."

He actually had the gall to smile at that, the asshole. I shook my head, sighing to show my overdramatic reluctance in giving in. "I will meet you at Jitter's once you're wrapped up here."

"I didn't say it was going to be Jitter's."

I glanced at the clock. "Iris is working right now. I'm pretty positive you were going to suggest Jitter's."

I checked on my pen, no prints, and then walked my way over to Jitter's with my thermos of coffee in hand. It was a bit of a walk, but the fresh air was probably good for me. At least that's what I had heard. It was nice enough I even grabbed a table on the patio, taking in everyone walking this way and that as they went about their day. I wasn't usually one for people watching, but there was something kind of soothing in it- the constant rhythm and stream of people, their difference highlighted in millions of different little ways.

"I'd offer you a cup of coffee," Iris cut through my thoughts, smiling over me, "But I have a feeling you're set."

"Set for life," I agreed, taking a sip. "I swear I'm not just taking up a table. Eddie is meeting me here to treat me to lunch." She gave me a playful impressed look, and I waved a finger at her. "Better watch out. You might have some competition."

"I get the feeling I don't need to worry. Eddie doesn't seem like your type."

"My type? You don't know what my type is... or if I even have one."

"I know it isn't Eddie," she countered. "I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I will let you know when I find it." I took another sip of coffee, not having much else to say on the subject. I had no time to waste with my cousins and my job.

Well, that and no one had asked.

Maybe my winning personality was just too intimidating for them?

"I'm glad you stopped by though," she changed the topic of conversation, making sure no other table needed immediate service before continuing. "I just wanted to talk to you about earlier."

"I swear, if I had known it was Barry Allen I would not have thrown the tissue box."

She laughed. "No. I think you made that pretty clear. I just wanted to say you're not a horrible person for crying about it."

I took a cautious sip. This felt like some sort of trap. Like a dangerous, perilous trap. "I'm… I'm not sure what you mean, Iris."

"I figured it out after you headed out- watching you and Eddie as you walked to the elevator. And I didn't want you to feel bad about it… or that I would be angry at you for it." No. She couldn't know. She wasn't that good. "You got comfortable at the CCPD. You made friends. You love your job. But now… now everything's turned upside down. And it's all looking a little less clear. You finally find your groove just to lose it." Holy crap. She knew. "And that's perfectly understandable. It doesn't make you a bad person. You didn't actually want Barry to stay in a coma."

Leave it to the West's to keep ambushing me with all this emotional crap today. I didn't need it. Besides, I had nothing to apologize for. I was well aware I wasn't a bad person. I was just doing what I needed to do to keep my life going in the direction I wanted it to. There was nothing to apologize for when it came to that. I wasn't sorry for spending nine months wishing Barry would stay in his coma. If I could, I would put him back under right now if it meant I got to keep my dream job. That's just who I was. Nothing to be done about it. Nothing to be comforted about.

So rather than engage her I pulled out my phone. Because for once something overruled my desire to stay in Detective West's daughter's good graces. And that was my complete disinterest in discussing my feeling with someone who would never understand them. "I should see what's keeping Eddie." I literally just hit buttons at random as she frowned down at me, but not in the mad kind of way. Just in the raging disappointment that mirrored the usual looks I received from her father. She had clearly been expecting more out of my emotional range. I suppose it was good that she had learned the truth sooner rather than later though. Maybe this would help her better define our friendship a little closer to my terms.

"There's another table over there making a face at me," she clearly covered her exit so she wasn't just awkwardly hovering over me. "I'll be back once Eddie gets here."

Eddie arrived about a half hour later, patting me on the shoulder and getting my order before heading in to place it. He soon returned with two paninis with a double side of mac and cheese for myself. He had told me that I was taking advantage of his kindness, but had promptly shut me down when I then reached to pull out my wallet. He would not take any insult to his chivalry, thank you very much.

"So has Captain Singh talked to you about what happens now?" he asked after some brief discussions about the crazy weather and how our criminal mastermind was utilizing them so well. He mentioned how he had someone working with a sketch artist and was hopeful it could yield some results. I was a little more hesitant, knowing they tended to be pretty unhelpful. Memories weren't something that could be trusted like hard evidence.

I swallowed my bite of sandwich. "No. And quite frankly I've done enough talking for today."

He didn't get the hint, lost in his own thoughts. "I mean; he can't just let you go as soon as Barry is ready to come back."

"That's actually exactly what he can do," I disagreed. "I was brought in as the temporary CSI while Allen recovered. He's back and that means I've fulfilled my purpose. They let me go and I move on with a lot of new experience and some fun memories- like the time I nearly fell through a manhole."

"But you've been there for nine months, Lindsey. You're one of us."

I fought back the flutter of annoyance I felt. I tried to remember this was just Eddie being concerned about me. He wasn't trying to push the wrong buttons, though he was doing a great job in it. "And he's been with them for years. He's practically grown up with the place."

"You're just so good at your job though." He picked at his macaroni and cheese, the mood a bit dampened.

"And I'm sure Allen is too. You guys will be just fine." Those were lies coming out of my mouth, pure lies. But I had to give him at least some credit I suppose. This didn't seem to improve his mood though and I decided to perhaps say something I would regret. "I'm not just going to give up though. I do plan on talking to Captain Singh. Maybe we can work something out. Allen might just want a few days to start since he did just awaken from a nine-month coma. That takes some adjusting."

"Yeah," he agreed, perking up at that a bit. "I know I'm probably being silly, but… it just won't be the same without you there." He took the final bite of his sandwich. "I'll have no one to eat lunch with."

I smirked, polishing off the last of my mac and cheese. "Poor antisocial you. Let me remind you that I won't have a job."

"Can I help you, detective?" Iris had returned to the table, and it appeared she was in peak flirting mood. Eddie's smile immediately became dopier, a common trait whenever she was within his field of vision. But then it faded just a touch.

"You can stop acting like you can't stand me when your dad's around." He gestured towards me. "You've seen the way she looks at me right?"

I put my hands up. "As with all matters involving this secret relationship, I am not dignifying that with a response. Though I will say that I don't think the two of you are as good of actors as they pretend to be. Detective West honestly might know already."

"Trust me, he doesn't." Iris scooted closer to Eddie so she had an arm around him. He quickly put his around her waist. "If he did, I would hear about it."

"I'm just saying, your dad is a lot of things. Including a Detective. Not among the list: oblivious." Don't worry Detective West. I was giving you the credit you deserved. Only you will never know this conversation ever happened.

"She has a point," Eddie agreed. "He's bound to have picked up on a few things. Maybe it's time we just come clean and tell him."

Eddie had brought up this topic many times. And he had discussed his talks about this topic he had when I wasn't in the room even more times. Iris had a go-to defense though, completely insurmountable. It was to make a quip and then go in for the kiss. The quip putting him off guard enough to put his mind on other topics when the kiss came. And then I usually banished them both from my lab if they were going to carry on like that. There was a concrete law against making out in the lab.

"Well, I like having a boyfriend who isn't shot to death." There was the quip. And then she leaned in, planting one right on him. Once it had gone on a second too long, which was one second, I groaned.

"Guys, I just ate. Can we not do this? I'll answer that. Yes, we're going to stop doing this. Because the secret relationship isn't secret if you make out at work." They pulled away from each other, only Iris seemed to catch the sight of something over my shoulder.

I turned to look over my shoulder, and once again Barry Allen seemed to be haunting me. He stood outside the shrubs that closed in the patio, seemingly spying on the group of us. I was honestly a little weirded out at how he had somehow managed to seemingly just appear.

For once he wasn't smiling. In fact, it was quite the opposite. His face looked completely and utterly betrayed, like someone had just kicked a puppy off a cliff in front of him. But it wasn't directed at the group of us- I almost could buy he hadn't even noticed I was here. All of that pain was directed solely at Iris as she remained perched half on Eddie's lap.

It was so strong it was unsettling. I quickly averted my eyes from his face, half out of pity at how transparent he was and half out of the shiver running up my spine as I just thought that this is what a disturbed mind would look like.

I forced myself to move past it though. I couldn't help but look smug as I turned back and finished off my coffee. "I told you- no good out of making out in public."

Iris stared at him for a very long moment before rising. "I'm going to go talk to him."

"Alright," Eddie agreed. She stepped back into the building and when I turned around, Barry was gone. He must have followed her inside. Hopefully Iris was okay talking to him alone. I mean, I imagine she was safe. But you never knew. "We should be heading back anyway."

His chair scraped across the stones as he rose, and I followed in a much quieter manner. We threw out our trash and then began our walk back to the CCPD. "And then there were two," I muttered to myself, though Eddie clearly heard me from the elbow I got to my side. A little harsher than necessary in my opinion actually. I got the point just as well as if he had been gentle.

I couldn't help but think to myself during the rest of our walk in silence that at least I had beaten Barry Allen to something. Maybe it was the thing that mattered the absolute least, but I had done it. And I got the feeling that little swell of satisfaction it made me feel would be enough to get me through the rest of the day.

When we arrived back at the station, all the witnesses had mostly cleared out. Irene flagged Eddie down as we exited the elevator, informing us the bank teller had finished with the sketch artist. It was on a folder on his desk.

"Hopefully this helps blow this case wide open," he muttered as we made our way over. "Pun completely intended."

I crossed my arms. "If it does, I buy lunch next time. And you can three sides of mac and cheese."

He threw open the folder after a moment's pause, and a face stared up at us. The man wore a baseball cap and coat with the defining features appearing to be his sharp nose that appeared like a bar going down his face and a couple tufts of hair sticking out from his hat. His eyes were small and narrowed with quite the square jaw. He might be a looker if he wasn't a murderer and bank robber.

Eddie let out a sigh at the photo, hand running through his hair. "Maybe if I run it against the database we could find something."

I continued to look at it though. Believe it or not, there was something about it I recognized. Something clicked deep down in my brain in a way that had no other explanation than familiarity. "I think I've seen him before."

"What?!"

I tapped the picture. "I know this face. I've- I've seen it before." I tapped it again. "I've seen this before. Where have I seen this before?" I racked my brain, images and faces floating through it. "It wasn't in person. I don't know him. But I've seen him." Eddie just watched as I looked skyward, searching for something in my brain I didn't know how to locate. "Where have I seen him? How have I seen him?"

And then it clicked. A photo. A box. "I've seen his picture before." With that I took off towards the lab with the drawing under my arm, Eddie right behind me. I took the stairs two at a time before nearly skidding in the door. I ran to the corner of the room where the boxes from the Particle Accelerator Incident lay long forgotten. Luckily, I dusted them each week though so they weren't filthy when I grabbed the one emblazoned with a three and threw it open.

I had found the folder by the time Eddie reached me, throwing it open to see a face near identical to the drawing staring back at me. "Well, I'll be." I pulled the mugshot from the file and handed it up to Eddie. "It looks like I owe you lunch."

He stared between the two, quickly arriving to the same conclusion. "Who is it?"

I glanced at the name on the folder, the details coming back to me from when I had chronicled him. "Clyde Mardon. All… all the evidence said he died when his plane came down after the explosion. I was looking through this when I was ruling whether S.T.A.R. Labs was responsible or not for it."

"This was who Joe was going after that night. He was the one who witnessed it. He would have seen if someone managed to get out of there."

"Well, it's too big of a coincidence… and I'm usually the last to admit that when it comes to eyewitness sketches. That drawing is of Clyde Mardon. It's almost identical." I shut the box and rose, dusting my pants off. "I don't have the slightest idea how, but he's alive. And now he's using the newfound freedom of his death to rob banks and kill people."

"I need to get this to Joe," he decided, tucking the picture in the folder as well. "Anything else for me?"

I glanced through the folder once more, eyes skimming the pages. "Just that the last place they hid out was a farm west of the city. I mean, no sense in getting a new hideout if everyone thinks you're dead." I snapped the file shut. "I've done my part. Now go get him."

He nodded, starting for the door before pausing to come back. He held his hand in the air. "Stop trying to make this happen, Eddie."

"Lindsey. We just might have solved this case. We had nothing this morning and tonight we might be bringing Mardon in. We did that." He nodded towards the hand he still held aloft.

I squinted at him for a moment, but quickly gave in to my own excitement about the situation. "Fine." I quickly high-fived him, instantly returning my hand to my side. "Be sure to tell West that this was all me, okay?"

"I'll give you eighty percent of the credit," he called as he made his way out of the lab.

"Ninety-ten!" I shouted after him, smile on my face.

"Eighty-five!"

"Fine!" And with that, he was gone.

I finished up a couple more tests I was running before making the decision to head out early for once. There wasn't really anything to do around here, and I was starting to itch to talk about the dilemma I was currently experiencing with my brother. If there was anyone I trusted to have an answer that just might work, it was his wife Jenny.

I came home to find the both of them gathered in front of the television, looks of sadness on her face and disbelief on his. Roger was cradled in her arms, dozing away for once. I kicked off my shoes and made my way over. "What's going on?"

"I don't know how I missed it," Thomas muttered. "There's no way I should have missed it." The screen displayed an ambulance light flashing next to two cars that had flipped over on the road. I recognized the location- it was a half mile or so in the other direction from Jitter's. It was the way Iris probably would have taken Barry. The headline blared white across the screen.

ONE DEAD IN CRASH CAUSED BY WEATHER ANOMALY

"I mean, I'm not the only one," Thomas continued. "No one is seeing this." His laptop was perched on his lap and he started clicking like mad. "Not a single meteorologist predicted any storm today, nor any fog on the roads. No one. Sunny. Sunny. Sunny. Meteor shower wiping out humanity- but Brady's with Apocalypse Now. He says that every day."

I watched as it cut back to the two newscasters, bantering without any real conviction about the current weather situation in Central City and who should be held responsible. Thomas visibly paled at that.

"Oh, don't listen to them!" I changed the channel to a Spanish soap opera. "You are a weatherman who does the best you can with the science you're given! You try to make everyone's day a bit easier by telling them if they need an umbrella or not! And unless you've secretly been Zeus this whole time, then you have absolutely no control over it! It is not your responsibility. It is a kind service you provide to people."

"Someone died, Lindsey." He was trying to calm me, but it only worked me up more. I think I was transferring some of my feelings from the day onto this one event, and it felt pretty good right now.

"And that's awful. But that was the weather. Which as we've discussed, you don't control. So it was the weather. It wasn't you. And anyone like those two clowns who says something to the contrary doesn't deserve to be on a platform where they can talk to Central City at large." I took a steadying breath, still livid. "Oh, and they can suck it! So can every person who gives you crap for this! I'm serious. The first voicemail we get I will track them down and kick their ass so they can pay a visit to Zeus themselves!"

"Aunt Lindsey said a swear word!" Aggie shouted from the top of the staircase. She was looking through the wooden rungs of the bannister in curiosity. Having blown her cover, she made her way down them one exaggerated step at a time. "Plus, she was yelling in the house. You know we're not allowed to yell in the house."

Shoot. I glanced to Roger, but luckily he was still fast asleep. Aggie made her way over to me and I rested a hand in her hair. "Aunt Lindsey was just railing against the cruel injustices of media for her brother's honor. You'll get to do it someday too when you're an adult."

Jenny merely sighed fondly. "We'll just shut off the voicemail for a few days and ride this out. We've done it before. We'll do it again." She rose, rocking Roger gently. "if only I knew what I was getting into when I married the Storm Reporter."

He smirked, glancing up at her with a surprisingly serious expression. "You'd still do it again?"

"In a heartbeat." And then she leaned down to kiss him, causing to pick Aggie up and swing her around a rotation.

"And now kissing! Always the kissing!" she giggled wildly as I set her back down. "I don't know about you, but I've had more than enough kissing for one day. Right?"

"Right!" she shouted.

And then Roger started screaming. I was the one deemed culpable and thus tasked with putting him back to sleep. Two hours of my life I will never get back.

It was a quick dinner of leftovers where we kept conversation to pleasant topics. I didn't want to add to Thomas's day by burdening him with my issues, not when Aggie discussing the school talent show was so much intriguing. I would just deal with it and tell him how everything worked out tomorrow.

Soon enough I was tucking Aggie into bed after another chapter in our latest Junie B. Jones adventure. I think she was getting a bit advanced for them, and soon I might retire her collection in favor of something a little more fun. Yes, Harry Potter was coming and it was going to rock the Porter household to its core.

I texted Iris and got confirmation she was okay. Allen had somehow gotten tangled up in the accident, but she seemed very unsure as to how. It was a little confusing. So I texted her back that I was glad she was alright before turning my attention to other things. I typed on my computer a bit, head swirling with thoughts and research, before Thomas was knocking at my door. "I told you that if I put him to sleep all diapers for the rest of the night were yours. Godmother's don't change all the diapers. I looked it up in the official handbook."

He stepped in, taking a seat in the chair from my desk. "Lindsey, do you remember the time I got mad at Theresa and decided the proper reaction was to smash that toy guitar she carried everywhere against her lamp?"

I closed my laptop. "Of course. It was a pretty memorable day on the farm."

"And do you remember what you did to me?"

"Yeah. I took justice into my own tiny eight-year-old hands and proceeded throw the remains of the lamp at your head." It was the first and last time I had ever thrown something in the house. I learned my lesson fast when my mom gave me that look.

"And do you remember what had happened earlier that day?"

I sighed, instantly knowing where this was going. "I had wanted to hang out with Josh, particularly his hamster Wiggles, but he had promptly thrown me out because I wasn't his real sister." It still even kind of hurt to remember, silly as it sounded. "I was just half his sister. And that meant he didn't have to spend time with me since I ruined his life." I could tell he was going to keep going, so I beat him to it. "So them I promptly went to find Theresa in a state of grief over his guitar before nearly giving you a concussion because you made her upset."

"But you didn't throw the lamp because I made Theresa upset."

"No. I threw the lamp because Josh said I wasn't his real sister."

"And you didn't rail against newscasters everywhere because they said one thing that upset me."

And there is was. I played with the sleeve of my pajama shirt absently. "Barry Allen woke up today, right before I signed the contract making everything permanent." I felt the tears creeping up on me. "Which means I'm going to lose my job. And we know there's not really anything else left in Central City. I won't get my own place. I'll have to go home. I'll have to leave you guys."

He pulled me in for tight hug, springs of the bed squeaking as he sat on the edge of it. "Hey. Hey. It's okay. We'll figure this out, okay? If you do lose your job, then we'll work something out. I'll talk to Mom and Dad myself if I have to."

"This wasn't how it was supposed to happen," I mumbled.

"I know. I understand." He pulled back. "But I also know my sister. I have some sneaking suspicion she's not going to let Captain Singh push her out the door without fighting like hell first."

I wiped my eyes with my sleeve, tears barely creeping out before I banished them. "I was actually making a list of all the contributions I had made to cases in the last nine months. Give him statistics and numbers about how much I've done for the CCPD since he hired me." I flipped open my laptop and showed him what I had been typing. "I already have twelve pages."

He smirked. "Yeah, that had Lindsey Porter written all over it."

I closed it again. "I don't know what it'll do. At the very least let him keep me on for a few more weeks while Allen gets his footing, giving me more time to push. At the most… who knows?"

I knew. Barry Allen had run his course. Stop living in the past. Give him a severance package and send him off to Starling City or Coast City. He would be fine. His time was over when he had been struck by lightning. Mine was just beginning. Mine was the future.

"And like I said, if it doesn't… we figure something out. Maybe we can pay you for baby-sitting until you find something else. I get the feeling that now that Aggie has you in her grasp she's not letting go easily. Plus, Roger needs his Godmother around to do all the stupid things I'll be too strict to allow."

It comforted me to know I had a safety net. Really, it did. "It will though," I tried to remain confident. I had to have faith in my own abilities, in my skills, in every interaction I had in the last nine months. The trial was coming and I could bring nothing less than my best. "It's my dream job. That has to count for something."

He nodded with a smile, hands in his pockets as he rose. "I do appreciate it though- what you said about those newscasters."

"No one messes with my family," I made clear. "Not now. Not ever."

"Night, Lindsey."

"Night, Thomas."

I finished my list and notes somewhere around two in the morning. I then found it impossible to sleep and drifted off close to five only to be up at six-thirty. I hopped in the shower, curling my hair to perfection, and then selected the outfit I saved for emergency situations. A green sundress that made my eyes and hair pop like nothing else I owned. It made me kind of mesmerizing if I was allowed to toot my own horn, but while not being so formal that it looked out of place. I slipped into a pair of shiny black flats, printed my notes, grabbed the two thermoses of coffee in the kitchen, and caught my bus to the CCPD.

It turns out a lot had happened while I was preparing my speech as I learned from the newspaper held by the man sitting next to me. Clyde Mardon was dead, for real this time. He had been killed after an altercation with the CCPD at the farm he had used as his hideout previously. It made no mention of officers getting hurt, so I felt pretty confident that West and Eddie would be waiting for me when I walked in today. The only other thing of note was a tornado that had blossomed near the farm, but promptly vanished.

It looked like Zeus decided to screw you over this time, Mardon. Like I said, nobody has the power to control the weather after all. It was bound to let him down eventually.

I stepped off the elevator, squaring my shoulders and readying for battle. "Captain Singh's waiting for you in his office," Irene cut right through it. I looked to see she was indeed addressing me. "Again."

"Thanks." And I practically sprinted for the door, though I tried to display some modicum of decorum as I made my way through the bullpen. I managed to lock eyes with Detective West though, and was taken aback by the nod of complete respect he gave me. There wasn't a hint of distrust anywhere within it. Looks like Eddie had been a little more generous with the credit than he promised.

I took a deep breath before knocking on the door. After I received confirmation, I stepped in only to grind to a halt at who was waiting for me. It was Captain Singh sitting behind his desk, poised as always with his hands crossed over the desk.

Barry Allen was sitting in one of the two chairs on the other side of his desk.

Fine. I was hoping to spare him this, but I would just have to work my speech with him in the room. He wasn't going to like what he was about to hear, that's for sure.

"You asked to see me, Captain," I addressed him politely as I made my way over to the second chair. As much as I hated to, I turned my head just a bit to nod in Allen's direction. "Barry."

His face broke into one his annoyingly large smiles before he nodded back. We then both turned our full attention to Captain Singh.

"Yes, Porter, I did." He cleared his throat before beginning. "As you know, the agreement when you were hired was that you were serving in this position temporarily until Allen was able to return. And after nine months, it looks like that day is here."

And here's the window I needed to throw myself out of. I glanced down at my notes, locking onto my starting point before glancing back up. "Yes, and I wanted to say something about that if I may. Because-"

"Allen already did."

The words died on my lips.

Excuse me?

Singh took my frozen state as grounds to continue it seemed. "He looked over some of your work these past months, and like us at the time he was impressed."

"Seriously," my ghost spoke up. "The way you managed to track down the Dragon so quickly. The Fleaman Case- I don't know if I ever would have thought to check the dog's nails. And the way you found the one fingerprint in that diner." He was gushing. Barry Allen was actually gushing to me about my work. And all I wanted to do was punch him in the face for it. "Then there's the lab itself. I've never seen it so clean in there in my life. It looks even better than when I took it over. Your system is flawless. I could go on and on."

"What's happening?" Those were the only words I could manage.

Singh picked up where Allen had left off. "So he came to me with all this as soon as I got here and had one conclusion. That we would be out of our minds to let go of you. And I couldn't help but agree with him." He gestured to a piece of paper on his desk. "So I wanted to try this again. Offering you a permanent job at the CCPD that is."

It was like all the air had been kicked out of my lungs. I literally couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I couldn't do anything but stare at the piece of paper laid out before me. It was so close. It was happening. This time it was actually going to happen.

And then my blood boiled when I remembered it was completely because of Barry Allen.

"How-how is this going to work?" I finally managed after what must have been a minute of silence. Thankfully, they both let me have it to process. "I mean, is there a plan in place or precedence for something like this?"

"Admittedly, it's pretty old but we did find a similar situation. We've already made our rounds through Human Resources to clear this before you came in. There will be a reduction in pay for yourself, but you will keep the same hours full time. You'll be doing pretty much the same work, just perhaps being more detail based while Allen will be the big picture." I couldn't care less about the reduction. I had a decent amount saved up, and I figured it would still be steady enough to at least start looking at apartments again.

"I don't know what to say," I admitted.

"You don't have to say anything," Singh made clear, holding out that cursed pen from yesterday. "All you have to do is sign."

I did without a moment of hesitation, having to prevent a giggle from escaping me. I was signing a contract to become a CSI for the CCPD. Admittedly, it was one of two but even that wasn't enough to put me down right now. I slid the paper to Singh, huge smile on my face as he nodded at me.

"Congratulations, Ms. Porter. You are now permanently the official CSI Assistant of the CCPD."

Official CSI Assistant of the CCPD!

Wait. Official CSI Assistant of the CCPD.

CSI Assistant…

Assistant?!

I was only the assistant! When the hell had this precedence come from, the 1950's? My pay cut was coming about because I was being reduced to scheduling his appointments and helping him into his gloves?! There was no way in hell I was going to be Barry Allen's assistant. Over my dead body. Give me that contract back so I can rip it to pieces please. Let's try this again but with my speech. Maybe then we'll have some different results.

"I'll leave it to you two to decide and come up with a lot of the ground rules for making this work. Porter will defer to Allen, and naturally you will both defer to me."

Hell no.

"You're both dismissed then. Congrats again." We both rose, both is what seemed to be two very different frames of mind. My head was screaming, but I kept the illusion up. I knew I couldn't voice any of it. I may be pissed, but I still had a job right now. A steadier job at the one place I wanted to work. This was really the best offer that was going to be laid on the table, and it would be completely stupid of me to squander it. I smiled politely and exited his office promptly, making my ways up the stairs to my lab.

Our lab.

His lab that I assisted him with.

Kill me now.

I stepped over to my desk, giving it a solid kick that only managed to hurt my toe. Allen followed behind me, blissfully unaware as he went to his desk and took a seat.

"Why did you do that?" I questioned, not even giving him a moment.

He just shrugged. "It was the right thing to do. Like I said, you're really good at this. They told me how you helped ID Mardon yesterday just based off a photo you happened to glance at months ago." I would be flattered if I didn't want him to be struck by lightning where he stood again. "Plus, Iris talked to me last night."

I furrowed my brow. "Iris?"

"She told me about you, how you've helped her through everything and let her come up here sometimes, and how upset you were about potentially losing your job. I decided to see if there was something I could do about it."

So I had my job- somewhat. But it hadn't been given to me by my arguing of my merits. No. I had this job because Barry Allen took me on as his charity case and argued in my favor. That he felt the need to step in and help me out of my perilous situation.

"I didn't need you to do that," I spoke before I let my mind run over the words. Because there was no way I would have said them if I did. They did not fit the image I had projected in the slightest. The image that Barry Allen had bought to the point he had gone in this morning to freaking slay a dragon for me. "I had a plan." I threw my notes on my desk. "I could have done this on my own. I wanted to do this on my own. And you just had to go and take that from me too. Just hanging over my shoulder like you have been for the past nine months."

His brow furrowed, obviously confused at the sudden shift he was seeing. This wasn't the person he had met yesterday. This wasn't the person Iris must have described. Nope. I was letting him see the real thing. Here I was. Lindsey Porter, the girl who could not possibly hate him anymore in this moment.

So I kept going. "And for the record, I'm not going to be your Assistant, so get that notion out of your head right now. You get your own coffee and you run you own samples. I'm not here to serve you. I'm here to do my job and solve some puzzles like only I can do. I don't need you getting in my way."

He just stared at me, looked right at me for a long moment and I swore I could literally see the cogs moving in his head. He seemed to arrive at one conclusion though. "You knew who I was when you threw the tissue box."

I thought is best not to start off working together with a lie. "I did."

He nodded, coming to terms with something before taking a step back. "I'm going to step out for a minute, make sure I don't get in your way."

"I appreciate it," I told him bitterly.

He nodded, grabbing his coat from his chair and starting for the door. He came to a stop though, turning back towards me. "For the record, I tried to get him to remove the term assistant. But it was the only thing Human Resources would accept. I wasn't going to hold us to that though. You and were going to be equals, work together. I figured we would make a good team- planned on us being partners."

"You are a lot of things to me Allen, but my partner is never going to be one of them."

He left after that and if we had a door I'm sure he would slam it. A small part of me instantly regretted what I had done. I had just burned a bridge I would never be able to repair. We would never be able to go back in time to whatever we had before I opened my mouth. The illusion was gone.

But then I remembered the fact that he had fought my battle for me, like I was some kind of damsel in distress he needed to save.

I suppose it was a good thing he knew who I was then. Because hopefully now he understood that he shouldn't be trying to be my hero. I didn't need him to be. I didn't want him to be.

Let the partnership begin.

XXX

 _And there it is. Our Pilot is complete. Barry is officially here and things are off to an interesting start. Lindsey will start getting wrapped more into his world soon, but for the moment there's a lot she has to overcome before she's even a little open to it. BarSey as I call it is going to be a nice slow burn, which in my opinion is the best kind of romance. I honestly never expected her to have the temper she does, but it was just one of those instance where she wrote herself. The thunder to his lightning I suppose. Hopefully one day she just aims in with Barry rather than against him. I suppose we'll have to see though._

 _I want to thank everyone for such a huge outpouring of support. This thing has exploded in a manner I never expected. Your love just keeps me going and makes me believe this crazy idea had some legs. I can't wait to show you what I have in store for you as we make our way through this season. I mean, we still have three more main characters she doesn't even know exist yet!_

 _Thank you to all those who followed this story to keep a finger to its pulse. Thank you TRONNOCK, TwilightNewMoonEclipseMidnight, captainclaris, Arya2013, BeneathTheWillow926, DEWFAL, HayabusaDragonFroce, IrisWestWrites, MissUnderstoodXOXO, TheBlondeMonster, amillionsstories, alayara, EllieDragon, RaspberryTroll, angelvoice15, evemarie07, dontwantto, bellexxxx, luvudramione, SylasPantz, BakuganShari, Narutoske, Ouat-in-vampirediaries, GGirll, Krystallian, kittycat310, Ankei-Kurai, DothrakiDovahkiin, jcscheidt, masqueraderose3, and waterflygirl._

 _Thank you to all those who without Barry meeting Lindsey took a leap of faith and made this a favorite. Thank you RAD092515, TRONNOCK, laadynaty, BeneathTheWillow926, HayabusaDragonForce, IrisWestWrites, MissUnderstoodXOXO, AnnaBanana27, mr. uroboros, angelvoice15, MysticRyter, beccuh, BakuganShari, Narutoske, TeamFreeWill2, TheLostPevensie, , Lulu Like Love, Kleoparda, Krystallian, Ankei-Kurais, and masqueraderose3._

 _And finally thanks to my reviewers. I have read every words more than once and treasure each one. Thank you Guest, TheLostPevensie, heroherondaletotherescue, IrisWestWrites, TRONNOCK, anon, vsncheze, and nora9gina._

 _See you next time._


	5. Co-Worker

_Co-Worker_

I had to bite back the biggest sigh I could possibly ever sigh. But considering who was on the other end of the phone, restraint was crucial despite the empty lab in front of me. Luckily, I could still give a pretty big eyeroll as I answered the question presented to me. "No, sir. I don't know where he is."

" _You mean he hasn't been in today?_ " the voice of Captain Singh crackled a bit on the other end. I glanced over at the usually empty desk across from me. It was just as messy as usual- Barry's return had not changed that fact in the slightest.

"That would be correct sir," I faked a bit of a bounce in my voice. I still had appearances to keep up after all. "I haven't seen at all this morning. I even tried calling and texting him, but no answer."

Honestly, I didn't have his phone number nor did I care to. But Captain Singh didn't need to know that really.

I finished the last swipe of my pen for my signature, ending all my carefully compiled data from investigating the scene of Mardon's final demise. Everything had seemed pretty clean cut, though it was a shame I would never get to ask him about how he used the weather so well to cover his tracks. It was a little unsolved piece that was niggling at me, but alas it was time to move on to whatever new trouble was awaiting me. Because I had learned long ago there was always something when it came to Central City. I closed the folder, placing it in my bin so I'd remember to bring it downstairs on my way out.

There was a sound on the other line that was almost like a growl mixed with a grumble. I swore I could hear Joe in the background, but that was cut off as Singh spoke again. " _Get down here Porter. I don't have time to mess with this today._ "

I practically jumped to my feet, grabbing my coat from the back of my chair. "I'll be there as soon as I can, sir." I grabbed the bag next to my feet, knowing already that is had been stocked and ready to go. "It's only a few blocks away, right? So it shouldn't be but a few minutes."

" _Good. See you then._ " And with that Singh hung up on his end, allowing me to quickly pocket my phone and make my way out of the lab. I took the stairs two at a time, knowing there was no time to waste. Joe was probably trying to get ahold of Barry at this very moment, meaning I had to be quick. It was crucial I get to the scene first. Good thing I was wearing the sneakers rather than the flats today.

There had been exactly one case in the week since I had become the… assistant of Barry Allen. God, the word still made bile work its way up the back of my throat and a flash of red appear before my eyes. And that case had unfortunately made it pretty clear how things were going to work from here on out with the two of us upstairs. Barry got called first, and I was his support in case something else came along. Otherwise, I was expected to keep everything up and running in the lab while Barry was out solving mysteries from paperwork to keeping chemicals stocked. Definitely not what I signed up for.

And if I was being honest, maybe it would have been better if Barry and I were on better terms… or terms in general. He might have insisted on this whole partner dynamic and let me step into the ring with him so that we could be doing better work by working together or something nonsensical like that. But as it stood he wasn't exactly leaping up to defend my honor when he got the call that got him out of the lab and my immediate vicinity.

It had probably been the longest week of my life in all honesty. Because Barry Allen had quickly proven himself completely unable to stop being just an earnest, disgustingly nice human being. And it was starting to drive me up a wall. He had been gone all of a few hours after I completely let my cover slip, something I kind of kicked myself for, and when he came back he leaned over my desk with a smile I wanted to throw something else at.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot," he offered. I didn't volunteer anything, merely clicking around various files on the computer. Honestly, I had nothing to say to that, because we had. We met after I spent nine months building him up as my sole enemy and competitor. It wasn't the ideal scenario to build a working relationship from. But it was the hand I had been dealt, and thus he was just going to have to deal with it. Especially since thanks to him I now had the a-word dangling after my title. "I mean, maybe we can start over… especially since we'll be working together."

Nothing but the clicking of keys as I typed. I saw a flash of frustration on his face, which pleased me a fair amount more than the smile, but he tried to bury it quickly. Seemed like he was playing the game with me I had forfeited with him. Seem like the nice pleasant coworker so we could get our way. I wasn't interested in games anymore though. Finally, he seemed to give up and go over to his own desk, falling into his seat in a much more dramatic fashion than was necessary.

And that was pretty much how I treated Allen- a stone wall of silence. He tried to strike up conversations constantly, tried to slide a foot through the door any way he could. He didn't seem to be able to understand what I was going for- like getting me to talk once would have the magic effect of turning this whole situation around. So, he was always talking. Always leaning against my desk in some desperate bid to involve me. "How about the weather today?" "Did you see the game last night? I mean, I didn't, but maybe you did?" "So… how long have Eddie and Iris been dating?" "Where did the extra gloves end up getting stocked?" "Do you think you can take a look at these calculations for me? I just want to run them by someone." "Who's the picture on your desk of?" That one I had merely taken the picture of Aggie and shoved it into my desk drawer with a scowl.

In fact, only two sentences came out of my mouth the entirety of the two days. The first was when Eddie had stopped in to visit the first day, clearly beyond excited that I was going to be staying. Allen had the sense to mostly keep his mouth shut, ducking out of the lab to go to the robbery that Singh had just phoned about.

"I mean, you get to stay," Eddie reminded me, as if I needed reminding. "This is great."

I smiled, eyeing Allen's retreat out of the corner of my vision. And the smile was surprisingly sincere, as most things surprisingly were when it came to Eddie and his enthusiasm. "I know."

Allen had paused, hesitated for just the briefest of seconds at the door. But then he was gone, leaving myself to let my guard down and offer to make good on my deal to treat him to lunch this time.

The second had been the same day after he returned. He had been running this way and that running tests while I had been finishing entering things into evidence for one of my old cases going to court next week. It wasn't too difficult though, given how meticulous my notes were. But I still tried to give the appearance of complete and utter concentration. I glanced up though as one of the computers started making a loud noise signaling it was done, a noise I never heard because I was always standing by for the results. Allen was typing something up across the room and I was half-tempted to walk over there and switch the thing off myself. The loud pitch it was emitting was giving me a headache after only a few seconds.

Allen must have noticed me looking. "Would you be able to get that? I'm a bit tied up at the moment."

Instantly, all desire to end the noise drained from me. There was no way I was putting my work on hold to help Allen with his. That wasn't my job, no matter what any amount of paperwork tried to tell me. Give him an inch, and he would surely take a mile. I went back to my work with only a scathing response. "I'm not you damn secretary Allen." I ignored the sound of frustration I heard coming from his vague direction, taking a bit of joy in it as well.

I had to suffer for another three minutes with that blaring alarm before he finally made his way over. "About time," I muttered under my breath as I highlighted something. He turned to me, looking ready to give me a piece of his mind, but merely took a deep breath and went back to what he had been doing before.

And that had been the extent of our interactions. Otherwise, it was just the silence of computers and pens as we sat literal feet from one another. But it was enough, just being around him was exhausting. He was built on so much energy I swore he was somehow slowly wearing mine down day by day. How he was doing this well after nine months in a coma made me wonder if he'd been faking the whole ordeal. It might be right up his alley considering the story of the man in the lightening.

Most of the time though he seemed to vanish for hours on end, telling me he would be back in a bit before he did so. Not that I minded though. Having my lab to myself was the time I pretended all of this was just a bad dream and he was still of in his coma somewhere. That it was all mine again and the biggest issue was Detective West giving me the look he seemed to reserve just for me. But then he'd come sprinting back in with an apology or an excuse, and my peace of mind shattered once again. Because the ghost had risen from the dead.

There were a few moments I thought I would get the whole day to myself, watching the clock eagerly as it ticked past eight with my hope growing a bit brighter every moment. But he always showed up. Allen may have been entirely incapable of being on time, but unfortunately, he always made it.

Which brought me to my current opportunity and spurred me to go a bit faster. I practically sprinted to my destination, ignoring looks as my bag collided solidly with my thigh every step I took. I had to consult my phone a few times to get an exact bead on my destination, but I didn't have too much trouble making my way over there. Soon I came to a storefront with the words Hex's Gun Shop displayed proudly across the top, several police cars scattered in front of it. I quickly adjusted my clothes, making sure my breathing was even and I didn't look too sweaty in the storefront window before I made my way inside.

The storefront definitely had all the evidence of a robbery. Behind the yellow police tape that had already been stretched from one wall to the other was the shattered glass of the display cases that had once been a counter. Whatever had been inside was gone now, price tags still left with some absurd value that never would get paid. There was also a body, a gentleman face down in an ugly plaid shirt- probably the Hex of the storefront.

I took a few steps closer and Eddie instantly spotted me, making his way over. "Good to see you, Lindsey. You're just the person we need for this."

He never ceased to try and lift me up a bit recently, in a way making his allegiances clear. I was his friend and thus he had my back. I was his CSI. Not that I believed he sensed any tension between myself and Barry- I think we were doing a pretty good job on the public front. Iris hadn't come to chew me out yet so I assumed he wasn't telling anyone anything- instead trying to be all adult and handle it himself. No, Eddie took care of the people he cared about. And he was trying to make it obvious every chance I got that I was included.

I noticed Detective West over in the corner, look of frustration on his face as he held his phone. He merely glanced at me before turning his back, clearly trying the number again. There was no time to lose then.

"Let's see what we got," I smiled at Eddie as I started to pull my hair back. I reached into the pocket of my bag only to pause when I couldn't find what I was looking for. But there was no way. I had just checked this kit.

"Looks like we forgot something," Eddie ribbed me gently. I looked up to snap back when I saw he held an extended hand with a rubber band dangling from it. It would have to do. "Good thing I'm here to save the day."

"What would I ever do without you?" I snatched it, making the sarcasm in my voice clear as I tied my hair back and started to slide my gloves on. "Thank you," I added hastily, fearing he would think I wasn't thankful for the assist. I was, but I was just mad I had needed it in the first place. Allen was throwing me more off my groove than I feared. I needed to get back into the zone and focus up. This was my chance. I wasn't blowing my chance. I needed to remind them how freaking amazing I was… and punctual.

"I've got a witness to interview," Eddie gestured to a man standing in the corner. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do," I agreed, making my way under the tape with a nod to Captain Singh.

"Great," I heard Detective West from the corner of the store, finally getting ahold of whoever he had been desperately trying to contact. I could guess of course though. "I got a fresh crime scene…"

I turned back to the work ahead of me, glancing at the cabinet again. Judging by the spacing, at least six guns had been taken. So maybe someone looking to sell them for a nice price. It seemed like they could get one from the amount of the tags. I looked down, meaning to examine the body, when something else caught my eye. I squatted down to get closer to a layer of dust that covered a pretty nice part of the tile floor, somehow here despite no tracks indicating it had been brought in with the thief.

But more importantly was the footprints stamped into the dirt, one after another crossing over each other in a very haphazard fashion. I pulled out my ruler and measured, each and every single one coming up the same size. Odd. That would almost give the impression it had been one guy, one cagey guy who paced around this area six or seven times. But that didn't seem to add up. It didn't seem like he would be able to make a few trips out to his car before someone spotted him, or that he'd risk the noise of taking the guns all at once. It was weird, but the evidence seemed to be leaning somewhere opposite.

"I think it was more than one guy," I informed whoever was listening, turning to see Detective West and Captain Singh gathered outside the tape. I grabbed a bag and deposited some of the dirt into it to run back at the lab. "The footprints here don't make sense otherwise. They're constantly crossing over one another, so either he was quite the pacer before he robbed this place or it was more than one guy."

"How many are you thinking?" West questioned, crossing his arms. I thought on it for a moment, glancing back at the case.

"It looks like about six… yeah, six guns were stolen. Maybe seven. Definitely some ammunition too. It matches what looks to be… six sets of footprints here." I rose. "The only thing that gave me pause was-"

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Barry interrupted, waltzing in the door. Everyone instantly wheeled to face him, and his gaze immediately went to me. "Lindsey? What are you doing here?"

"Your job," Singh spoke up before I could, derision clear. Allen turned to face him, looking a little chastised. Good. This was good. "When we couldn't get ahold of you, we thought it best to call over someone we knew would be present at the station. Or able to be contacted at all."

Allen seemed to be panicking a bit, looking to West for some sort of support. West just gave a parental shrug, clearly not planning on sticking up for him this time. Eddie was still talking with the witness as he played with a tablet, and he didn't even bother looking in my direction.

Maybe this was the perfect time to speak up then. Mix things up a bit. "That's why there's two of us now though, Captain. I was more than happy to come in while Barry was off… doing something important I'm sure."

My words seemed to have the intended effect. Despite how kind I forced them to be, it only seemed to wind Singh up more. "He shouldn't be off doing anything. He should be at work or at the very least able to be reached when he's needed. It's been less than a week Allen. I don't expect you to think coming in on time is optional just because Porter's here." He level Allen off with a hard stare, nodding towards the tag displayed plainly on his coat. "Especially things like Fall shopping. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir," Allen managed, glancing down at the ground. It almost brought a smile to my face. But I kept my look sympathetic as Detective West ripped the tag off without missing a beat before thrusting a set of gloves into Barry's hands. "I was just… I went so fast this morning I didn't notice. Yeah." He ducked under the tape to stand next to me. "Let's see what we've got here."

I gave my warmest smile. "Barry, I don't really know if that's necessary," I told him under my breath so no one else could hear. "I already looked everything over."

"Oh, so we're on a first name basis now," he whispered back. "I'm sorry, but my secretary never got me the memo." We both locked eyes then, and his look was infuriating- challenging me to say something. Daring me to fire back and make a scene right here and now. Baiting me to throw everything away in one display. I had played a card from the bottom of the deck and now he was playing his.

Maybe I had underestimated him.

I nodded politely, taking a step back so I was back by Singh and West. I turned my head a bit to see West was staring at me very curiously, almost like he was evaluating my behavior- how I acted now that myself and Allen were in the same room together. I tried to relax my body language as much as possible. There was no use is looking like I was ready for a fight. "He's going to look things over. See if I'm on the right track." I was. I knew I was. There was nothing he was going to say that I hadn't. But now I just had to sit back and let him undermine me.

Eddie made his way over to us with the tablet, showing it off to West and Singh while I kept my eyes trained on Allen. He was literally doing everything I had done, crouching down by the dirt. I'm pretty sure his look of being deep in thought had been on my face a few minutes ago. I had to keep my arms locked at my side, refusing to cross them in a show of my annoyance. Lindsey Porter didn't do that. She was more than happy to let Barry Allen walk all over her.

I turned to the others, desperate for a distraction. Eddie was showing off what looked to be a view of the store from behind us at the entrance. Our victim was up and moving, carrying on like it was just another day. Poor guy. "I downloaded the surveillance footage off the video camera," he informed us as a man in a mask stepped into frame and shot our plaid wearing owner in the back. He then turned to the security camera and the shot fired just before everything went black. "It only looks like one perp." He nodded in my direction. "Though I know Lindsey said she believes-"

"Footage may show one, but it was six guys," Allen's voice cut in. "Look, the tracks. They're all crossing each other. Six sets of footprints. Six guns stolen. We should be looking for a crew."

That's what I had said. That is literally what I had said less than five minutes ago. Everyone knew that. Everyone remembered that right? This was so pointless. We were all just wasting time right now.

"Exactly my thoughts," I couldn't help but remind everyone. "Looks like our brains are already syncing up," I felt a need to have, doing a hand gesture from my head to his. He looked amused, though I knew it was just by the lengths I was going to make this seem believable. Our sentences exchanged had already doubled at this rate. He looked back at the dirt, squinting as he seemed to notice something. I stepped under the tape again, gravitating towards the big mystery of the moment.

"The shoes are all the same size," I voiced my thoughts. He nodded, mind clearly going.

"Men's tens, I'd guess."

"You can tell that just by looking at it?" I questioned, skeptical. Maybe that's how he managed to get this far- guessing and hoping he was on point.

"Yeah. Just like you, Captain." He looked up where the Detectives were gathered with Captain Singh. Everyone seemed to react to his comment, eyes widening. "Not that you're a suspect, sir." I had to keep from laughing at the look West and Singh were giving him right now. Maybe I didn't have to eliminate Allen from the equation. He might just do it himself.

I patted him on the shoulder. "Good work, boss." I stepped back under the tape to Eddie. "Give me a ride back?"

"Yeah. We're about done here." He looked to West, who merely waved him off.

"I can walk back. You take Porter so she can get started."

I turned back to where a flustered Allen was rising, clearly kicking himself for his words. "I'll get back to the lab and start running some of the samples I collected. Hopefully we can get a match to something." He didn't respond, looking lost in thought still. With that, Eddie and I started out the door and I cracked my knuckles. "I'm hoping to have this thing locked up by lunch."

"Do that and I'll buy." We climbed into the car and he started the engine.

"You're on Thawne," I agreed, propping my feet up on the dash merely so he could knock them off with a roll of his eyes. Eddie treated the car as well as I treated the lab, and it was an excellent pulse point for messing with him when it pleased me. "It just feels good to be sinking my teeth into a case. I was worried I would be trapped up in that lab for the rest of my days."

"How are things going with Barry?" he asked casually. I didn't answer right away, mind scrambling for the proper response. "I mean, it must be weird having a partner after working alone for nearly a year."

Leave it to Eddie to thankfully give me a jumping off point. "It is," I admitted, carefully measuring what I was saying. "It is definitely an adjustment. We haven't quite… found our groove in working together yet. Though I'm hoping that happens sooner rather than later because things are just kind of awkward right now. I'm the person who took part of his job and he took part of mine." Though maybe soon we wouldn't have to worry about that if he kept blundering about.

"Ah, you'll be able to wear him down," he assured me, somehow making me feel better despite not knowing how I really felt. He pulled into his usual spot at the side of the station. "Sometimes it just takes you a few tries."

I snorted at the memory of our first encounter, unbuckling and climbing out to bask in the Central City sun. The weather had drastically improved since Mardon was dealt with oddly enough, as if Zeus was celebrating our win. It was starting to be enough to turn public opinions back around for Thomas. Give people a few days of sun and suddenly 'The Storm Reporter' was back to be enjoyed as hilarious eye candy. I had received a text from him this morning that a girl had showed him a tattoo she got with his face on it. I had never been one for public attention in the slightest. So I didn't know how he handled it without being extremely creeped out, but somehow he actually managed to revel in the attention he got. Because right after the text had been a selfie with the girl, a weird distortion of his face on the arm between them.

It took a special kind of person alright.

Eddie kindly handed off my bag from the back of the car and the two of us made our way up the grand front steps. "Looks like your brother's really taking the world by storm," he commented about the weather, earning a warranted eye roll from me. He knew very well my thoughts on the catchphrase, and using it against me was a low blow that could not go without retaliation.

"I don't know what Iris sees in you," I tried, stepping into the building and holding the door open for him. It wasn't my best, but it would have to do.

This didn't seem to have the intended effect though. Eddie's face clouded over a bit, an unwelcome frown gracing it. "Apparently not enough to tell Joe about us."

Great. Now I had opened up a can of worms. I didn't have the time or energy to deal with this right now. We stepped into the elevator and I quickly picked up on the awkward silence. It was my turn to say something, but I had no clue what to do. So I settled for patting him on the back gently. "I have to go run these samples and get that lunch you'll owe me. And then I promise I will give you the pep talk of your life, okay? The kind that leaves you just in… tears of determination."

Anyone else might have been pissed I was clearly ditching him. But Eddie, of course, agreed without hesitation. And maybe that was why I was letting him farther into my comfort zone than anyone else, because it felt like the CCPD was attacking me from all sides right now. Even if it wasn't true, it was still very clear to me whose side they would take if things didn't work out upstairs. I was banking pretty heavily on something getting thrown again eventually, but prayed Allen managed to screw up enough to send him packing before then. But I was in this fight alone. And despite usually handling everything by myself as I preferred, it did make me feel better to know I had someone in my corner. That there was someone in this place I could count on. And so I was starting to let small hesitations slip away, selfishly just wanting to keep Eddie around for my own peace of mind.

I started up the steps with a last wave. "I'll be writing the speech while I wait, okay?" He just waved me off and made his way through the glass doors back over to his own desk. As soon as I made it up to the lab I already had the main computer up and running, depositing my bag back by my desk with mental notes on what needed to restocked promptly. I expertly navigated the wall of chemicals to find what I needed, despite Allen clearly having moved a thing or two around behind my back. We might be having words on that. Because if I was the a-word, then this lab was going to be up to my standards.

I mixed together what I needed from memory into a glass test tube from the freshly clean and spotless rack I had moved over by the centrifuge probably my third day here. Allen had it on a random shelf where you had to walk a solid three hundred feet to reach it. Talk about a waste of time. The last ingredient was some of the particles I had gathered from the scene before I confidently placed the tube into the centrifuge and flipped the switch.

Nothing.

My frustration was immediate. "You've got to be kidding me." I flipped the switch a few more times on the ancient red machine, checking to make sure it was properly plugged in. It was, which meant this was a larger matter than I needed. I let out a vocal groan before flipping the device on its side and screwing the bottom off with some difficulty and muttered cursing to reveal a mess of wires moving in what seemed to be every direction.

And now I was completely out of my element. I did not have the slightest idea on mechanics other than plugging them in and flipping a switch. Call it a side-effect of growing up in a house where a male family member was but a shout away, usually Thomas and Dad. And though my dad certainly believed I could do anything I wanted, he was also the type that believed that if I came over from school with something in need of repair that he would do it while I objected and handed him tools. It was just the kind of guy he was. I secretly kind of loved it I suppose when I thought back on those moments. My dad was the only person I felt alright not being completely together around.

But he wasn't here now. And I was now staring at a broken machine I had no idea how to fix that was standing in the way of my success. I moved a wire this way and that for a few minutes, but it quickly became obvious that I would be getting nowhere by myself. And nothing made me more irritated than not being able to solve something myself. I was half tempted to chuck it at a wall or out the window, but I bottled the impulse with the thought of the ire that might bring on from Captain Singh.

I let out a huff and slammed it on the table, glancing at the sample I needed to run. Maybe Eddie would have some idea what to do. Or Captain West. He seemed like the type of guy that knew his way around a machine or two from stories Iris told. I really didn't want to ask him for help though. He didn't need to find me any more pathetic than he clearly thought me now.

My thoughts and plans were all interrupted when the all too familiar squeak of sneakers made their way into the lab. Fantastic.

I looked up to see Barry Allen making his way casually into the lab like he owned the place, bag slung over his shoulder in an irritating fashion. I hadn't thought it possible, but somehow just the way he held his bag so casually was pissing me off. This guy knew how to get under my skin like no other. He glanced at me before I could look back down, tilting his head to the side in curiosity. "What's wrong?" It wasn't the friendliest way to utter the words, but it wasn't completely cold either. I don't think Allen was capable of that. "Your frown's deeper than usual."

Normally, I would have ignored the bastard and stalked back to my desk to work on something else. But instead I decided to let my ire for the centrifuge find a new target. "Of course it is." The bile in my voice came out loud and clear, nothing like how I addressed anyone else on a daily basis. Allen somehow had a way of bringing it out in me. I gestured to the useless machine on the table. "A week back and you've already gone and broken our only centrifuge."

He went by his desk and dropped his bag down, perhaps a little harder than necessary. It might have just been my imagination though. "I haven't touched the centrifuge actually. So, it looks like it must have been that way before I got back." He gave me a pointed look.

I crossed my arms defensively. "I don't appreciate what you're insinuating, Allen. I think you merely need to glance around this lab to see who takes care of things around here."

He made his way over to where I was standing, trying not to notice when I shifted a few steps away from him almost naturally. He took a look at my handiwork- screws stripped from removing them, wires tangled in ways that almost didn't seem possible, and a small dent in the side from not knowing my own strength when I threw it down. He clearly didn't like what he was seeing, but I wasn't about to admit to anything. I just stared from my new spot on the other side of the table, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. "I have samples to run," I reminded him, hoping to chase him off.

He nodded. "I know. Give me a minute and I'll see if I can fix this." He picked up the screwdriver, but I shoved down the metal end with my hand.

"That's not necessary," I tried to smile politely at him. "I can handle this."

"Clearly," he said in a manner that made it clear he disagreed. And the small part of me that had wanted this problem solved so the work could get done, the part that had been considering to the smallest degree letting him fix this, shriveled up and died. Allen was not going to see me step aside, even if lightening did strike me dead right here and now. Letting him help this once would just open up a door I had no intention of unlocking. So I just glared at him, the dark look only a youngest sibling could give.

"You won't lose your job if you let me help you, you know," were the words that came out of his mouth after a tense moment. And they were surprising and introspective enough that he managed to pull the screwdriver from my grasp. I silently cursed my moment of weakness, tempted to throw Allen himself out the window for aiming below the belt. He took a long look at damage I had done, glancing up at me once more. "Give me a few minutes and we'll be back up and running."

"Whatever." I shrugged him off bitterly, making my way back to my desk and trying to ignore him as he got to work fixing my problem. I fell into my seat, swinging it so I was facing the window rather than his direction, still mentally kicking myself for letting him get the better of me. But I just hadn't expect him to play dirty like that. I needed to ready myself for those kind of attacks in the future, because I certainly wasn't falling for that one again. The only one who had to worry about losing his job was Allen once I was done with this case, especially given his display before the Captain earlier.

I was so deep in thought I didn't hear Allen finish until he silently deposited the vial onto my desk, sediment now set in the bottom and liquid divided into the two appropriate layers. "Looks like we need a new centrifuge. She had one left in her though." I went back to ignoring him, grabbing the vial and preparing for the next step of analyzing just what was in here. Allen meanwhile fell into the chair with an exhausted sigh at his own desk, now completely useless himself, as I made my way over to another station. I was about to shoot something at him about who the secretary was now when I caught sight of a smiling Iris as she entered the lab.

I instantly forced everything down, greeting her in a hug- unable to ignore Allen's raised eyebrow from his desk as I did so. "Hey, Iris. What brings you up here?" I looked at the outfit she was sporting, a pale pink lace dress that honestly made her look like a knockout. "And what has you looking so good?"

"Thank you, Lindsey. I'm actually here to yell at this guy," Iris gestured to a now very alert Allen who rose as she made her way over to his desk. "Because this is all your fault."

"I believe it," I felt compelled to add, earning a cheeky smile from Allen's adopted sister before she turned back to her target. I made my way over to run the sample, loading the vial into the machine next to the computer and typing in the necessary data as they conversed.

"I could have taken European folklore to cover my Sociology requirement, but no. You said 'Take journalism, Iris. Reporters have all the fun.'"

"And you believed him?" I shouted over my shoulder, digging while still keeping my voice playful enough Iris wouldn't suspect a thing. "First mistake."

"Yes, because guess what, Barry? Reporters have none of the fun. Journalism is boring. I'm bored. I blame you." There was a bit of a pause before she spoke again. "What? Why are you staring at me like that?" This caught my attention as I finished typing in the last few numbers, and I glanced up to see Allen shaking his head clear of whatever thoughts had been clouding them.

He went to say something, but noticed me just over Iris's shoulder and schooled his features a bit more. "I just agree with Lindsey. It's a nice dress." He was holding himself back, clearly hiding something. It was almost obvious.

Interesting.

Iris didn't seem to pick up on it at all, I imagine merely flashing her dazzling smile. "Thanks. Why don't you look nice?" she questioned, gesturing to his appearance. He just looked confused and she nodded her head as if trying to prompt something. "This afternoon? Suit and tie?" Nothing. "The University is giving Simon Stagg- "

Ah, the award for Simon Stagg this evening. It had been mentioned on the news a few times this past week- including the ridiculous amount being spent on the gala he was throwing himself for when he received it. Thomas, despite being the lamest part of the News Team, was taking Jenny this evening actually. It seemed being the one and only Storm Reporter made you famous enough that even the weatherman got invited to big events. Often he was requested before the rest of the team, especially if a woman was involved. I was babysitting this evening when they went on date night afterwards, taking over the sitter they hired for the afternoon for the gala. Though Thomas had told me she was on stand-by in case I was needed here tonight instead. I was hoping to wrap this case up though so I could spend the evening with two people I actually liked- one of them being an infant.

"Simon Stagg?" Barry tried out the name, clearly still not recalling anything. Hmm, maybe the come had given him brain damage. I mean, one could hope right?

Or maybe he was just that out of the loop with current events right now. It wouldn't be hard to see that one either.

"They're giving him a big award tonight," I cut in, unable to watch his floundering any longer. I considered it an act of mercy, like shooting a limping deer. Plus, hopefully it made us even for the whole centrifuge thing. Now I didn't owe Allen anything.

Except my job.

I cursed the thought out of my head.

Iris gestured my way. "And you agreed-"

"To explain the science stuff for your article," he grimaced, writing something on one of the dozen yellow pads scattered around the place. They never yielded anything useful though. Mainly because his handwriting was absolutely atrocious. He seemed to be kicking himself mentally for forgetting. "It's all coming back to me now."

I made my way back over to my desk, catching the fond look of exasperation Iris was giving him right now. This might not be an uncommon occurrence. I got the feeling she needed to meet Thomas one of these days. I had seen that look more times than I could count. "How fast can you get home and change?"

"Uh, pretty fast." He started for the door to the lab, somehow completely forgetting that we were in the middle of a case here. Not that I was stopping him. Let him walk out and I'd be sure to mention it to Singh when I gave him the report. Arriving late and leaving early? Two strikes my friend.

"Hey, Allen," Eddie greeted as he entered the lab before locking his attention on me. "Lindsey, Joe asked me to see where we're at on the evidence from the gun store shooting."

"Running it through my system now to see what we've got," I replied, leaning back in my chair. "The centrifuge threw a fit, so it looks like someone gets out of owing me lunch. Sabotage perhaps?"

He laughed at that. "I'll let him know. I'm still expecting that talk though."

I winked and pointed in his direction, easy smile making its way across my face. Allen was now looking at me like I was from another planet. I think he didn't know I was even capable of these expressions. "I'm working on my speech now."

Eddie turned to the last person in the room, trying unsuccessfully to appear casual after a glance at Allen. "Oh, hey, Iris." I rolled my eyes.

"Detective," she responded naturally.

It was too much. "He knows. Remember?" I gestured to a clearly uncomfortable Allen for whatever reason. Though their acting like they weren't in love was pretty cringe worthy. "You guys weren't exactly subtle about notifying him when he woke up."

Allen took a minute before nodding, unbelievably awkward still. "Please, guys, uh, just kiss already."

I had to run between the two of them before it could happen, hands pushing the two of them apart. "No. No. We have one rule here. One rule." Iris rolled her eyes playfully at me, so I pointed at her first. "Don't give me that look. It is a well-established rule and you both know it." I turned my attention to Allen. "This lab has a very strict No-Kissing policy I'll remind you. I threatened to get a sign before and it still stands. Then we'll see if your dad notices anything."

Iris turned to Barry, flashing the smile she usually used to get Eddie off topic. "Barry? It's your lab too. What do you say?"

He took a beat, looking between the two of us before that usual smile graced his features. "I don't know. I think Lindsey's rules have good standing here."

"Thank you!"

"One day you two are going to have someone up in this lab," Iris lectured, "and you bet I'm going to remind you about your own rule."

I scoffed, the very thought almost appalling to me. "I seriously doubt that."

"We'll see." Iris turned back to Barry, wrapping an arm through his. "Now if it pleases the boss, let's get going."

I waved them off, thankful for the peace and quiet their exit would bring. "Go. Have fun."

"Would you be interested in coming at all?" she inquired. "I could probably get someone else in if I tried. Plus, you're better dressed than he is right now." I glanced down at the dress pants and nicer blouse I had picked out for the day, blushing a bit despite myself as I waved her off.

Even I could appreciate compliments, especially with all the planning I put in every morning.

"No. I need to get this done so I can get home. I've got plans with my girl tonight. She is determined that we finish Sorcerer's Stone if it means she has to stay up all night."

"She sounds like the best," Iris complimented. "I have to meet her one of these days." She gave me another quick hug and after a beat did the same for Eddie. I nodded in approval. "Have fun. See you later, Detective."

"Bye Iris. Bye Barry." Once the two of them exited he turned his attention back towards me. "You have to let me know what house she gets sorted into."

"I will," I agreed, returning to the computer to check the progress of the sample. Still had a long way to go. "I am convinced she's Ravenclaw like yours truly though."

"Or she could have the makings of a fine Gryffindor."

I rolled my eyes. "Please!"

He laughed for a moment before seeming to remember something. "Oh, I should go let Joe know how things are going. I'll be back up with my lunch in a bit okay?" I gave a salute, lost in thought a bit that I barely heard him exit.

Ah, silence. There was nothing more beautiful.

Except maybe I wouldn't be too upset when Eddie returned. He wasn't exactly the worst company. Better than anyone else here, that's for sure.

XXX

"So, you don't think she's embarrassed by me?" Eddie inquired as he took the last bite of his sandwich, almost uncomfortably vulnerable- at least on my end. I shook my head as I polished off my own leftover lasagna from last night, tucking the container back in my lunchbox. I was sitting in Joe's desk across from him, appreciating how clean he managed to keep everything. We may not have been friendly by any stretch of the imagination, but it was clear we shared some values. "It just… it feels that way sometimes."

I swallowed, pointing my fork at the blonde detective. "You know what time it is?" He sighed, knowing exactly where this was going. But it didn't deter me in the slightest. "It's time for a Perspective Flip. Ready?" I placed the fork down, giving him my full attention. "Now, you're the daughter of one of the most respected detectives at the CCPD. A dad that you clearly look up to and adore. A dad who is clearly a bit… overprotective. Picturing it?"

And Eddie, well he actually went to the trouble of closing his eyes- scrunching them as if deep in thought actually picturing this scenario. I don't know what I was going to do with him. "I really hate the fact that you were an RA in undergrad."

Complete falsehood.

But I had grabbed a few books off Amazon on the topic when it became clear Eddie was going to be coming to me for absurd amounts of advice despite my best efforts. If I was stuck doing this, then you can bet your ass I was putting in the effort to do it right.

He opened his mouth when his phone rang. He glanced at it before looking at me, leading to a curse under my breath despite my usual composure. "Hey Joe." I started cleaning up my half-eaten lunch as he listened. "Okay. I'll be right there. Of course, she's right here." With that, I pulled out my phone to text my brother, knowing it was going to be a long night. "Joe, I know Iris and Barry- right. I'm on my way to the car now."

I finished off my apology text as he hung up, grabbing the bag he handed me from the drawer of his desk. "What did you mean about Barry and Iris?" I inquired as we started for the elevator. I fished a ponytail out of this bag, relieved when I found one. Looks like I haven't completely lost my touch.

"Lindsey, there was a robbery at the gala," he reported solemnly as we stepped through the glass door. I felt my pace instantly quicken, hands fumbling to pull my phone out of my bag where I had tucked it a moment ago. I hit two on speed dial and agonizingly waited as the phone rang. It went to voicemail and I wanted to throw it across the room. I went to dial again when Eddie placed a hand on my shoulder.

"They might be interviewing him right now. It's probably nothing. Just try sending him and Jenny a message." He clicked the elevator button as I fired off another text, realizing he was most likely correct. "And on the way there it might be best to call the babysitter to let her know she'll be working the late shift."

I followed that advice too, pausing for a moment when I finished. "It scares me how much you know about my life," I admitted in a moment of honesty. I knew he wouldn't take it quite the way I meant it.

The doors slid open and we stepped in, causing me to see the smirk on his face when I glanced up. "You'd be lost without me."

I rolled my eyes, but was feeling generous enough to humor him slightly. "Sure. I probably would be." We stood in silence a moment before I spoke again, needing to create closure for earlier. The last thing I needed was a repeated conversation. "And for the record, Iris is not embarrassed by you. There is nothing about you that should. You're Eddie freaking Thawne after all." He didn't say anything, but I could sense the words were appreciated. Consider that conversation a wrap. Thankfully. I hated leaving loose ends when it came to things like that.

When the two of us pulled up to the scene, the panic seemed to have died a bit. Several police cars and ambulances were there, witnesses having been roped this way and that in a slightly unorganized manner. But it was clear everyone was doing the best they could.

My breath couldn't help but stop when I noticed Jenny and Thomas standing over by Detective West giving their statement. And then my feet were moving despite themselves, pulling my brother in for a tight hug. "You're okay?"

"Right as rain," he joked, earning a slap on the arm from Jenny. She had enough weather puns to last a lifetime by now.

"Good," I replied as I pulled away. I turned to Detective West, apologetic for just rushing in. "Sorry. That was- "

"Human," he answered for me, and somehow it seemed like the greatest compliment I'd received from the man. "They need you inside though."

"Of course." I gave Thomas another quick hug. "Detective West is the best there is. So behave, okay?"

"I'll make sure he does," Jenny answered with a smile and squeeze of my arm. With that, I made my way into the building to start looking it over. I wasn't expecting to find much given it was a robbery, but hopefully they had been sloppy enough to leave something behind. Or at least give me a way of knowing how they got in to see if I could match it up with anything already in the database. But most likely this was going to be a waste of my valuable, Harry Potter time.

I was working diligently with no fruitful results apparent when I caught sight of a pink dress making its way across the room towards where Detective West and Eddie were meeting up to compare witness stories. I put down my brush for a minute and went to where she was headed, only noticing on second glance that Allen was trailing behind her with a very disappointed look on his face.

Good. At least he was having as great an evening as I was.

"Where were you?" West was questioning Allen as I made it within earshot. Iris spotted me first and pulled me in for a quick, unexpected hug before turning attention back towards her dad. "Dad, go easy. I found him outside. He fainted."

I couldn't help but snort, but luckily it was covered by Eddie's genuine concern. "You want me to get you a paramedic, Allen?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks Eddie," he waved him off, seeming grumpier than usual. Oh, this could be fun in the lab later.

"I thought I was dead," we heard a voice from beside us. We all turned to see one of the security guards speaking to Clarkson- ice bag on his head. "I saw the gun go off, and then- boom. Suddenly I'm outside. I have no idea how I got there."

Adrenaline. It's a crazy thing.

West locked eyes with Barry though. "Let me talk to you for a second."

"Yeah," Barry reluctantly agreed and followed him. I turned back to Eddie and Iris, shaking my head at how they were looking at each other with her dad merely ten steps away. The two of them were hopeless.

"I'm going to get back to work," I announced a little loudly to get their attention. "I'm glad you're okay though." I looked as the security guard rose from his seat, the interview over. "That everyone seems to be okay." Iris was looking at him too with an odd look on her face. "I mean, if anything it will make for a good story."

"Yeah…" She thought for a second. "That guard… he said he was suddenly outside, right?"

I shrugged. "We're capable of crazy things when we're in danger, Iris." With that, I made my way back over to where I had been and continued my scan of the building. Allen proved no help of course, disappearing after his conversation with Detective West. Soon the sun was setting and all the witnesses had been let go. I was the only person left, besides Eddie who volunteered to stay to give me a ride back. I had insisted I would be fine, but he was having none of it.

It was dark by the time we reached the station again. Eddie offered to stay while I catalogued my findings, but I assured him it would take no longer than an hour to type everything up. I hadn't been able to uncover anything much at all other than multiple assailants.

Multiple assailants of a very similar, almost identical build, according to many of the witnesses Eddie had told me. Which was an odd detail. Just like at the gun store earlier. The same shoe size for all of them. I strongly suspected a link between the two, but unfortunately had no way of proving it at the moment other than instinct. Which meant I would just have to work harder to prove one somehow.

The concern though was that these assholes would vanish off the face of the earth. They had what they wanted having stuck up Central City's elite- enough cash to buy them a nice life somewhere else. My only hope was that they were stupid enough to show their faces around here again, slim chance as it was.

Just like I said, I finished in about an hour and was shutting down my computer when Detective West walked in. Unusual. I though he had made his way home once everyone was interviewed, especially with Iris being involved. "Detective, I just finished my report if you wanted to view it."

"That's fine. I'll look it over in the morning. Is Barry here?"

Oh my God. Seriously, I was not his babysitter.

But him being absent could help me. Keep building things up against him. Multiple witnesses to his behavior was necessary.

I shook my head politely. "Honestly, Detective West, I haven't seen him since you pulled him aside back at the scene. I don't think he came back here to work-up anything at all."

West nodded, accepting the news though clearly not a fan of it. Perfect. "Is he alright?" I questioned, driving things even further. "I mean, he mentioned he fainted. And that might just have been a one-time thing from the stress, but between you and me he's often late and vanishes for hours on end. I just worry… that he's not one hundred percent yet and is taking it all too fast."

Detective West didn't say anything to that. I was tempted to make a comment about always being willing to help, but this was not the man to push things with. I knew that all too well. So I decided to leave it where I had, grabbing my purse from where it was hanging. "I'm going to get going if that's alright."

"Of course. Thanks for your hard work Porter," he waved me off without enthusiasm. As he went to leave himself I noticed his eyes stop on the map of the city. "What's behind this?"

Shit.

I did not want to be here for this. My hold tightened on my purse and I mentally panicked a bit on how to proceed. "Well, it's… I'm going home," I blurted, annoyed at myself and reigning it in. "I'm going home and it's your choice whether you look under there or not. Just know… that it's stuff he'd probably like private."

And with that I signed off for the night, leaving Detective West to the mental conundrum I wanted absolutely no part in. I did not get paid enough for that.

It was a little late to walk home, so I hopped the next bus and stepped through the front door expecting the usually empty dark household given the time. I was surprised to find Jenny of all people curled up on the couch with a book. "Hey," I greeted with a whisper, kicking off my shoes and making my way over. "I was expecting everyone to be asleep by now."

"I tried, but Thomas's snores were a little… distracting when I abandoned that in favor of finally making some progress in my book." She nodded towards the baby monitor sitting next to her. "Plus, it's about time for someone to wake up."

Jenny and I were close, closer than I had ever been with any sibling beside Thomas. But I still hesitated, not wanting to probe unwanted into her life. The last thing I wanted to do was be disrespectful when she was literally putting a roof over my head right now. But, more than that I needed to make sure my family was doing alright. "Is it because of what happened?" She glanced up from her book, eyes meeting mine. "That you're having trouble sleeping."

She slid a bookmark into the novel without looking down. "It wasn't… quite the evening I was expecting in all honesty. Luckily, no one was hurt. And I thought I was fine afterwards. But then I came home to Aggie and Roger. And I thought… I wonder what would have happened if we didn't make it out of there. Of course, after that I couldn't stop thinking about it."

"I'm sure," I sympathized, taking a seat next to her. "And my family does not agree on a lot, and by that I mean close to nothing, but we all love those two. And we should, because they're the best. So I guess all I can say is that they'd be taken care of. I'd at the very least make sure of it. Hopefully, by then I'm in a stable spot so I can keep the house, but I'm sure I could have assistance on that front."

"You'd really just take care of them… two kids for the rest of your life? No offense. It's not that I think you couldn't do it. But it would mean a lot of changes for you. Certainly cutting back on a lot of those workaholic tendencies of yours."

I didn't even have to think about it. "Of course I'd do it. There are four people I can stand in this world, and they make up half of that." I patted her knee.

"Only four? The way Eddie talks about you sometimes… I was thinking the two of you seemed to be good friends."

I shrugged. "He's just a work colleague. Nothing special."

"Sure." I could tell she didn't believe me. With that, the sound of crying echoed through the baby monitor. "I'd better get that. And you'd better get to sleep. You've got another early day tomorrow."

She started up the stairs. "Jenny. Thank you… for letting me stay here. For letting me be a part of their lives. I'd hate myself if I missed it."

"Well, thank you for being here. You're right about your family. They're quite the… interesting bunch. But you have each other. I didn't have one before I met Thomas. And now I have all of you. I consider myself very blessed."

Her words followed me as I fell into bed that night. I had once asked Thomas about her family back when they didn't show up for Graduation. He had just told me it was a complicated situation and neither of them had ever elaborated. I had never met anyone, even with Roger being born. No mom stopped by or sister or even crazy aunt three times removed. For all my desires of toughing it alone and counting on nobody at all, even I knew I couldn't make it without the four people in this house.

For all my bluster, I think deep down maybe I didn't want to be alone at all.

God, I started thinking weird when I was up too late. Best just leave the topic to be forgotten in the morning. Lord knows there never was a boring day anymore.

XXX

I stepped into the lab the next morning ready to approach whatever challenge the day gave me. I was wearing a new pair of pale pink flats with a baby blue sleeveless dress and had even taken the time to properly curl my hair this morning. Finish the look with a dash of red lipstick and I felt ready to take on the world. Today was a new day. A better day.

"What the hell is this?!" I questioned harshly as I approached my desk. It looked like the scene of a crime, doughnut boxes scattered across my space as well as taking up close to every inch of Allen's. There… there were crumbs in my keyboard. This was not a drill. This was not a freaking drill.

"Sorry. Sorry." Allen came barreling as if from nowhere, trying to gather as many into his arms as possible at one time. It only caused more sprinkles and debris to coat my desk and wedge into places they shouldn't be. I could literally feel my blood pressure rising. "I was… I planned on having them cleared out by the time you started. Forgot to account that you're always early."

I put my hands to my forehead. "Put them down."

"What?"

"I said put them down. You're just making a bigger mess." He just continued staring at me. "What? Am I speaking Latin? Put the boxes down and let me handle it."

The smirk that appeared was infuriating. "I thought you weren't my secretary."

I unfortunately had to fish for a way to recover on that one, and I'm sure he loved every second I floundered. I think my eye was twitching as he put the boxes back on the desk- still with that grin. I came so unbelievably close to throwing the boxes at him, truly. "Well, it's become clear you wouldn't be able to tie your shoes without my supervising, so pardon me if I don't trust you with something this complicated." I started to properly gather up the boxes. "And did you seriously eat this many doughnuts, because that's just disgusting."

I stacked the boxes professionally and made my way over to deposit them in our trash. As I made my way back over to give my desk a thorough once over, I noticed Detective West had entered the lab during my short detour.

The tension between him and Allen was palpable. I was only used to seeing that kind of body language from Allen around me, not around his adoptive father. Something was clearly going on between the two of them. They both looked my way as I came into view. "I-I can step out if you two- "

"That won't be necessary," West dismissed me. "Simon Stagg's head of security was murdered last night." What? Seriously. "The coroner took some skin samples. Hopefully they belong to the killer." I could tell it was serious because he handed the envelope labeled evidence over to myself rather than Allen. "See if you can find a match."

"I'm on it," I declared, already stepping over to set up shop on one of our benches.

"Can't be a coincidence that Stagg's benefit was attacked last night," Allen finally spoke up. I agreed with him of course, though I didn't voice it. Clearly our thugs were after more than a single robbery. It looks like they had a target in mind- the man himself.

"I'm going to interview Stagg now," West clearly agreed with our line of thinking.

"I'll come with you," Allen offered and I instantly found myself lifting a finger.

"No," I made clear, putting my foot down. I wasn't doing this again. "You're staying right here and doing your actual job. I'm not flying solo on this again."

West pointed in my direction nodding. "For once, I agree with Porter. Your job is here in this lab. Stay in here and do it." With that, he started out- crossing paths with an entering Iris.

"Hey, Dad."

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hey, baby. Gotta go."

She watched him go before stepping up to where Allen was morosely leaning over his desk. "Why is my dad mad at you?" Thank God, I wasn't the only observant one around here. I might have lost my mind by now.

"Work stuff," was the only reply he gave, unusually short with his adoptive sister as he made his way to look over my shoulder as I ran the sample.

"Personal space, please," I requested politely. "I know how to run this machine. We'll have the results in a few minutes." He backed off a mere step.

Okay, so it was going to be like this today.

"Barry, chill out and give her some space," Iris thankfully stepped into my corner. Her tone wasn't particularly friendly either, and this time it was obvious enough that even Allen noticed.

"Why are you mad at me?" he questioned, making his way back over to her and finally giving me some breathing room.

"You were supposed to meet me at Jitter's to give me some scientific background for my article," she seemed to remind him, and once again I felt like I was trapped in what seemed to be a personal conversation. How the hell did this keep happening to me in my own lab?

"And I didn't show up." I could make a run for it.

"And now I have to come up with a new article topic in twenty-four hours or I fail the assignment." No, I was staying here until the sample was done. I wasn't letting him take this one from me just because he kept dragging drama into this hallowed space of science.

"Iris-"Just keep your back to them and hopefully no attention will be drawn to you.

"Don't say that you're sorry, okay? I know that you are. What I don't know is what is going on with you." Allen sighed dramatically at this, almost frustrated. But his silence kept her going. I meanwhile attempted to actually become one with the wall and somehow fuse into it. "We grew up one bedroom down from each other. Do you honestly think that I don't know when you're happy? Or sad or depressed or lost? I'm gonna ask you one last time, Barry Allen, and you better be honest with me. What the hell is going on with you?"

My attempt to blend into the shadows was shattered as the database beeped. I pulled up the results as Allen made his way back over to me.

"We are not done talking about this," Iris warned in a way that had me very grateful to be on her good side.

As the data filled the screen, I instantly found myself frowning. "That's impossible."

"Are those-?"

"Yeah," I agreed, knowing exactly where Allen was going. "They're stem cells." This was completely baffling.

"There was a murder last night," Allen filled Iris in as I just stared at the screen more intently as if the answer would just come to me. "These skin cells belong to the murderer, but these cells are naïve. They're stem cells. They can replicate and become any cell the body needs."

"They are also thusly only seen in infants," I added the most important point to this story.

"So that means your killer is a baby?" Iris inquired.

"According to this it does. I'm running the sample again." I started typing away and preparing to get another sample as Allen unloaded the previous one. "Something must be wrong with this machine. We seem to be having a lot of trouble with our equipment lately actually." Unfortunately, Allen didn't seem to react much to my barb. I was on the ropes, and I hated being on the ropes.

The exact same information appeared a few silent minutes later. I quickly tried to problem solve, mind going a mile a minute. "Okay. We can send some of these samples over to the closest precinct and get them to run it with their machine. In case it's absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, we get someone in here to take a look at this thing and fix whatever the hell is wrong with it." I got up and went to my personal computer, ready to track down the fastest place we could send it out too. We could not afford this today. The whole department was counting on us to figure out who these guys were. I for one was not letting them get away on the technicality of a broken machine.

I was surprised to hear the printer fire up, Barry grabbing a piece of paper off it. "Meanwhile, I'll take this name downstairs and see what Joe can find out when he questions Stagg about him."

"I don't know," I spoke up, trying to put on the best appearance with Iris still standing right here. "I don't trust any name it gives us right now. It's better to play it safe then send them off after the wrong guy. That just… it creates a mess."

"You know what else creates a mess? If this guy kills Stagg before we can do anything about it. At the very least let's see if this name means anything to him."

"We could come off making this department look really foolish, Allen."

"We could end up allowing Stagg to be murdered because we did nothing, Porter."

We both stared at each other for a long, tense moment. A battle of wills. I refused to even blink, eyes narrowing.

He finally broke contact, waving the paper a bit. "Sorry to do this, Porter." I read between those lines as 'I'm actually really going to enjoy what I say next'. "But I outrank you. I'm taking this downstairs."

I tried to burn a hole in his back with my eyes as he practically ran out of the room. I leaned back in my chair with a frustrated groan. "Pain in the ass," I grumbled, removing an errant sprinkle that had lodged between my 'Alt' and 'Ctrl' keys.

The sound of someone almost flopping into Barry's seat startled me. Iris. Shit. I had completely forgotten she was still here when I began throwing my pity party. "I know. What is wrong with him today?" she questioned, seeming to agree with my previous harsh statement. "Does he do that to you often?"

Keep to the plan. Keep to the plan. "I mean… in all honesty it hasn't been perfect. He's great, but he's used to doing this job on his own just as much as I was. There's been growing pains for sure. But that has to be the first time he's ever pulled rank on me. And I really didn't like it."

"Yeah, that was really uncool. I'm sorry."

I shrugged, pulling up the e-mail of the investigator in the closest precinct I could find to us. I'd need to head downstairs and talk to Irene about our protocol for intercommunication between precincts in cases like this. Especially when I needed this done ASAP. "Why are you apologizing? Last I checked I was his 'Assistant', not yours." Yeah, I really needed to work on hiding the bile on that word judging by the face Iris pulled.

"He's not usually like this," she appealed to me. I gave her a carefully playful raised eyebrow and she snorted. "I know it sounds like I'm just saying that. It's cliché. But it's true in this case. You've heard me back when he was in the coma- Barry is the absolute sweetest guy I know. He wears his heart on his sleeve."

And he wears his absent-mindedness right under that. Plus… let us all not forget the repressed insanity a few layers under that.

Iris seemed to take my silence as a gap she needed to fill and kept talking. "I wish he would just talk to me. Tell me what's wrong." I glanced at the clock on my computer. Irene left promptly at five p.m. every afternoon like clockwork. Thankfully she understood the need for order in this place. But that meant I only had twenty minutes to catch her. Hopefully, Iris wrapped this up so that I didn't have to abruptly excuse myself- even though it was to do the work I was getting paid to do right now. "I just… I think it might be me."

Well, that was the exact opposite of what I was looking for.

"What makes you think that?" I forced out, seeing she was clearly upset. "You two seem like any brother and sister I know." Which is exactly why this line of questioning would produce no useful results and I now had nineteen minutes.

"Yeah. But he's also my best friend. And don't tell him I ever said this, but often times it seemed like I was kind of his only friend. I mean, he had people he talked to but I don't think he ever really hung out with anyone here or from school still. I understand why- kids can be mean so he kept to himself- and often it didn't matter because he had me."

I rose to make my way over to her, crossing her arms. I couldn't afford to be just staring at a clock. "I'm afraid I'm a bit lost. You're still definitely here, Iris. In fact, you've been up here the last two days visiting him."

She sat for a minute, a long minute, clearly formulating her thoughts. "But I also would be lying if I didn't say I was here to see Eddie as well. And I think… I mean we weren't dating when he was struck by lightning."

I put a hand out. "Wait. You weren't?" I tried to roll my mind back that far, but I honestly hadn't been listening to Eddie as… attentively as I tended to these days. I liked to think I was making up for it with the whole Detective West Saga now though.

She shook her head. "No. You were already working here when we had our first date, remember?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm sorry. I guess… maybe it's just that I just picture the two of you together for as long as I've known you." She looked a bit skeptical. "Also, I was new and that first month is a blur of trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. A frankly terrifying blur."

She seemed to space out on me for a moment there. I glanced at my watch. Fifteen minutes. "Iris?"

"Sorry, just I think I may- I'll tell you in a minute. First, I was saying that I think the fact that I'm dating Eddie might be why Barry is struggling to adjust. That I have someone in my life that he might view as being more important to me. Which is how it's supposed to be, but at the same time he didn't get the adjustment period, you know?"

I wasn't buying it. Dwelling on my personal experience, I had always loved Jenny for Thomas. He had been going through a bit of a rebellious phase when he started college and left quite a few broken hearts behind. But then Jenny had made him work for it and somehow turned him back into the brother I had grown up with. The one who returned my calls within a day rather than a month. It was literally a James and Lily Potter type of love. I mean she was so confident of her place in his life she let him casually flirt every day on the morning news.

And as far as I could see, Iris had not pulled away from Barry in the slightest. Granted I hadn't seen their relationship before. Even Eddie was going out of his way to be nothing but kind and supportive to Barry. They made each other better like a good relationship should, and I didn't see why Barry would waste his energy sulking about that. Especially harder than I was sulking considering my whole job status had been flipped inside out. I was even getting frustrated I was devoting this much thought to this.

I was never jealous of Jenny, so why the hell would Barry be jealous of Eddie? What kind of brother wouldn't want her to be happy with someone who clearly made her happy? Unless he wanted her for himself or something.

It was almost like the second the thought entered my mind a hand grasped it and wouldn't let it go. And then my mind started playing moments I had witnessed. The way he looked at her when she wasn't looking, the way he kind of acted off when Eddie was around- that stupid look on his face when he had first seen the two of them together! It was like seeing those moments again but now standing a little to the left in a way that made the whole scene different.

Barry Allen was jealous because he was in love with Iris West himself. His only friend by her own admission. The girl who he had basically been raised beside. And the way she was acting gave me a vibe she hadn't a clue in the slightest.

I kind of wanted to throw up at that. Just when I thought he couldn't get any weirder or crazier, he had to be in love with his adopter sister- pining her from afar. Boy, Allen was full of unsettling surprises.

I came back to my senses to see Iris had risen and was staring at me with a raised eyebrow. Despite my practice schooling my features, clearly something had slipped through. Part of me was tempted to just release my realization, but I was down to ten minutes. I need to get out of this. "I was… just looking back on things. Seeing if I got that vibe from the way he was acting. But I can honestly say I haven't. I think he's just still adjusting to being back, and despite being eager to take the blame it isn't your fault at all. He just needs time to get back on his feet, get used to me even."

"Maybe," she admitted, clearly not won over by my words. "But I guess I just need to hear it from him to know that for sure." I nodded in understanding, perking up a bit as she glanced at her watch. "I'm sorry, but I have to get to Jitters or I'm going to be late."

Thank God. "No problem. Someone needs to make the big bucks."

She fake laughed as she gave me a quick hug on her way out. "Very funny. I'll get a real job someday, granted I pass this Journalism class."

"Inspiration will strike you."

She seemed to drift off for a minute again before coming back. "I think it might have. That guard- the one from the Gala yesterday- he mentioned suddenly just being outside right? And he didn't know how he got there?"

I didn't catch onto her line of questioning. "Yeah. Thinking of doing an article on adrenaline in intense situation or something like that?"

She seemed to make a decision, squeezing her bag. "Something like that. I'll see you around."

"Definitely." I gave her two minutes to get into the elevator before I practically sprinted down the stairs to catch Irene. Didn't want to give off the impression I had just been waiting for her to leave, even though I had been.

Irene was packing as I slid up to her desk, and she gave me a look that might have anyone else pause. "I'll be quick," I assured her. "Just need to know the policy on contacting other departments on running samples. Our machines are being… temperamental." She just stared for a moment, so I did my best to flash her my most winning smile.

With a grumble she put her glasses back on and opened one of the many manuals on her desk. I took the moment to glance through the glass, pausing when I noticed no one was there. Even Captain Singh's office seemed unoccupied, door wide open in a way it never would have been had he just been leaving early. No, he had been out in a hurry. "What- is something going on? Where is everybody?"

Irene shot me a look that seemed to be daring me to have her answer that while she was already doing me a favor. I spoke her language though. "I can take the book and look through it so you can get out of here. Find what I need and leave it right here when I head out. You know I'm good for my word."

A beat later the manual was being handed to me. I accepter if gratefully as she slipped on her coat. "An armed gunman went after Simons Stagg."

Simon Stagg? But Eddie and Detective West had been going to meet with him. "Do-do we know if everyone's okay? What happened?"

She stepped around the desk and I followed her to the elevator. "Seems like everything went okay. Gunman was taken care of, but Stagg made it. So did everyone who ran down there as soon as word got out. Including Barry since I'm sure you're wondering about him."

Allen? Wait, he had never come back after coming down here. He had just… taken off without telling me anything?

The elevator opened and Irene stepped in. I waved her off. "Thank you. I was. Have a great night." I headed back up and pulled up the local news on my computer after setting the manual down. 'Police Searching for Danton Black after Attempt on Simon Stagg's Life'

Well, looks like Barry had time to give everyone the potentially incorrect name we had found. Fantastic. This day was clearly a banner one from start to finish.

I glanced at the manual I had retrieved before pulling it over to me and starting through it. It took a couple of hours to go through the whole process, but soon enough I had the sample being picked up for the CSI in Coast City to examine and call me in the morning with the results. By that time there was still no hide nor hair of Allen, so I took it upon myself to grab my coat and start making my way home. If anything else was needed then they could just call him. See if I cared… this evening at least.

I missed dinner by the time I got home, but I did make it in time to read the third to last chapter of _Sorcerer's Stone_ to Aggie before she had to go to bed. I promised her we would finish it tomorrow- scout's honor.

Thomas and Jenny were both in their room after I gave her a kiss on the head goodnight and switched off the light, so I quietly made my way downstairs to the kitchen. I opened the fridge to light up at the sight of a leftover lasagna that was clearly calling out to me. I heated up a slice and made my way to the living room to turn on the news while I ate. It was usually a prohibited activity, but what Thomas and Jenny didn't know wouldn't hurt them. I even rebelliously put my feet on the coffee table- feeling like a true rebel.

But I pretty quickly lost my appetite as soon as the first story popped up. " _Central City police officials are now confirming former employee Danton Black was found dead this evening on the property of Stagg Industries._ " The picture showed a body with a white cover being moved to an ambulance, clearly from a helicopter over the scene. _"Black, upset by his dismissal and having targeted Stagg multiple times this week including the Gala yesterday, appeared to have fallen from the floor above him. At this time it could not be ruled whether is was a suicide or an accident. We will continue to update everyone as the CCPD continues to update us._ "

Looks like Allen had won this one. Allen had broke protocol and abandoned his actual job to report on something unconfirmed… and he had somehow miraculously been right. The credit and glory would be his. He had solved it. Meanwhile, here I was two steps behind with a wasted night. Nothing but a loser. Clearly some force of evil was determined to keep him around, because it wouldn't be easy to push him out immediately after this with a few observations of him being late.

I had underestimated him. Clearly. he had been good if he had kept his job this long and I had just refused to acknowledge that. But here it was staring me right in the face. I rose, throwing the now cold lasagna out before making my way to my room. Frustration and anger were bubbling deep within me, but I needed to turn it into something more productive if I was ever going to win this.

I wasn't going to be made the fool a second time by his uncouth methods, that's for damn sure.

The next morning, I slipped into a more causal pair of pants and sweater, tying my hair up to complete the casual look, before filling up my thermoses for the road. If there was a scene today, I would go as far as to body check Allen to make sure it was me who went. He owed me that at least.

He was already at his desk as I entered the lab, completely throwing me off with his unexpected presence. I had been banking on my usual and much needed time alone to get things done- including eliminating any sign I had contacted Coast City. Even worse, he grinned when he spotted me- good mood clearly restored. "Morning! Coast City just called but I took a message and left it on your desk for you. Also grabbed whatever sprinkles were still left. Sorry about that."

"Why the hell didn't you come back yesterday?!" I started on him instantly, my plan on keeping the anger buried erased with that stupid smile. That smile that was warm without even trying- like he didn't even have to think about anything before he just acted. "You just… up and vanish without a word, leaving me to take care of everything once again! I had to learn from Irene about Simon Stagg! Irene!"

His brow instantly furrowed and the smile faded. The goodwill he had carried in this morning was hopefully gone because I could not stand it. But he tried to play it cool rather than matching me. "'When I heard the news I went to the scene to see if they needed me. I figured you had things taken care of here and I should have told you, but honestly I got really concerned about Joe being there so I wasn't fully thinking." He was hiding something. It was the truth, but he wasn't being honest right now. There had to be something else. "By the time I got back you were gone."

I crossed my arms, smirk on my face. "Well, considering I left at seven-thirty, that still leaves some time unaccounted for that I'm curious about. Especially if you had stuff from the crime scene you would have had to immediately return here."

"Well, I knew Iris would be concerned about Joe so I went to visit her afterwards at work to let her know he was alright. Plus, I had to apologize to her since I'm sure you noticed I wasn't exactly my best self yesterday. Hence why I was going to try again with you today, but as per usual there's no point to trying. And after I apologized I came back here to apologize to you. But it took longer than I expected and you were gone. And I might have been able to tell you that while it was happening, but we haven't traded any sort of contact information yet." Ah, there was the dig. Subtle but effective.

"Did you tell her that you're in love with her?" I let out without even thinking, instantly regretting those words. Because in an instant the entire atmosphere of the room shifted. This wasn't just the two of us picking on each other. Now, now had grown much more severe. I could tell in the way he buried all of his emotions, desperate to hide his reaction. But I saw it. And I pressed even deeper. "Because that's the true reason you were an ass yesterday, right? Why she thinks you've been weird since she woke up?"

He was almost white now, color quickly drained from his face as he stared at me in almost shock. I took the moment to throw my jacket and purse over the chair- refusing to sit down and put us on an even ground though. "How-? "

I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes. "Because I can see, Allen! The way you look at her. The way you act around Eddie. I'm a CSI not a Detective, but you make it that obvious." I didn't feel the need to mention I had put this together literally yesterday. It was irrelevant to the moment in my opinion.

He just sat there for a moment, almost shell-shocked. But then his face morphed into a look I hadn't been expecting. He looked up at me with clear confusion. "Why didn't you tell her?"

I had not been expecting that.

He kept staring, eyes locked on mine. "I mean, it's clear how you feel about me. So why didn't you just tell her and make my life just that much more miserable like you clearly aim to? Why not hurt me the worst way you could?" And I found myself tongue tied somehow when confronted with that question. My brain desperately searched for an answer, for some sort of comeback. But I was coming up desperately short in this moment. Why didn't I? I mean, honestly, I had even considered it. But why? Why hadn't I?

He ended up being faster to his next thought than I was, rising as he seemed to realize something. "You didn't do it because it would hurt her too. And it would hurt Eddie." Oh, I did not like where this was going. "Because you care about them too much."

I tried to beat him to the next punch, opening my mouth to disagree. But I found I couldn't make the words come out that I wanted- the denial that I felt anything for Eddie and Iris other than tolerance. Even though I desperately wanted and needed to, the limited loyalty buried within me wouldn't let me lie right now.

Because it would be a lie, wouldn't it? I mean they weren't just my friends. They were my only friends. I even considered Eddie my best friend locked somewhere I would never admit. And now because I couldn't force the words out Barry knew that. Seems we had both found the weaknesses of the other.

My lack of response was all the confirmation he needed, and he continued to stare at me. But his look had once again shifted. Sizing me up. "I don't get you," he admitted finally. "I just- honestly, I thought I had you figured out. That you played everyone- pretended you cared about anyone and anything other than yourself. That for some reason there was something wrong with you, maybe something awful had happened, and it made you this way. And I was lucky enough to be the only one who was in on it because I managed to be in the right place in the right time. That is was my luck I got to see who you really were. And all I could hope for is you'd eventually go back to pretending with me too."

He really thought so little of me? Well, sure. Fine. Matched what I thought of him, actually.

"But that's not true is it?" he continued, and frustratingly I remained helpless to stop him as my brain still refused to grab words to make a sentence. "You are capable of thinking about someone other than yourself. And you do with them. You do with whoever that picture in your desk is of. It's not something in you that's… broken. It's me. For some reason, you genuinely despise me that much."

Okay, new idea. I pulled my eyes from his and sulked to my desk, silently falling into my chair. He just stared at me as I dived into my work, not even processing the next words he sent my way.

"What was that?" I asked coldly, hoping to rattle him even a fraction of how much he had honestly just rattled me.

"I asked you why," he repeated. "Because unless we met before and I don't remember, I don't have the slightest idea. And unless you tell me, working together for however long until you get sick of me and quit is going to continue to be this awful unless you talk to me."

I scoffed. Until I quit?! Oh, he had no clue the very depths of my patience. I was not going to be the losing team. I looked him straight on once again. "You're right. We have never met before." And that was all I gave him, turning back to my work.

When I looked back, in typical Allen fashion he had vanished. I had no clue if he had said anything to me about where he was going, and quite frankly I was past caring. Right now I just needed to make sure he never left me at a loss for words again. And then we would see who quit.

XXX

 _Hey guys. So, it's been awhile. Over a year awhile. No excuses of course, but PA school. Oh boy, PA school. But I'm here now. And hoping to be around a lot more frequently. I have a lot of ideas for the now four seasons we have before us, and can't wait to get to some exciting characters in the near future._

 _Thank you to all of those who have added this story to their Alerts. I'm hoping to be sending you messages a lot more frequently in the future. Thank you TheRomanceEpidemic, CandyMe21, Tzar Vukovi Krvavi Dvorac, asarcasticunicornliveshere, SVCrystalGreen, yukikinns, Black Dove WhiteDove, Choco-Latte64, FalafelxD, TaylorLou123, DancingWithAngelsAndDemons, LuCkY-StAr69, Our Anime Lives, FictionalAffluency19, Lauraaa9889, patamon642, pattersonfan, HichiShirosaki, KiniKat19, kate1243, Pheonix Witch 18, virkelighetsflukt, Andysteve1311, Erysima, Izuminka1992, NeonMcQueen, CloudEnvy12, A-Prayer-4-da-Damned, XxRikela-chanxX, Skipping on Shadows, TheFlame-Burned-OutButIt-Glows, oxsilvertearsxo, kadmac, Exultant, Rae Kid, Kari-Senju, Missrosedust1309, Moonyong98, Angel-Peyr, U. I, Azalie-Kauriu, WeAreTheHearts, thethreebirds, ScaryMary54, Zebchike, instrument trio, sweetortonlover86, sydvan23, jinkiestrap, layluvsall, Ronnie.H, TroubleBecca123, CailleachBheirre84, spnlife321, Wobulator, crossMIRAGE19, RHatch89, foreverinvisible, SunshineBubbles, teensuprnatural7, Dahcheetah, Alive-In-Wonderland22, Eruanna6898, VermilionFeathers, ozforever3, BlackRoseAki, Life Dealer, , Don't Define Me, and Carly Carnations._

 _Thank you to all those who have favorited this story. It's an honor and hope to keep writing to those expectations. Thank you to DarkPrincess27, Mesa-writer, The-Pug's-Quill, Ben23ten, Tzar Vukovi Krvavi Dvorac, BlackDove WhiteDove, TaylorLou123, Choco-Latte64, MarvelsAvenger14, Serena Marvel, MoonWolfAtlantis, Beloved Butterfly, Our Anime Lives, Fictional Affluency19, patamon642, DayDreamUntilDark, The Dark Lady55, Beatrice Diggory, 1MoreInMe1, Andysteve1311, Erysima, DaughterofDemeter123, Shannyrox101, Skipping on Shadows, inspibrain101, kadmac, ShelBell25, Rae Kid, allstarcheergirl, Emparon, Hurricane.'97, M.C. Heredia, Azalie-Kauriu, WeAreTheHearts, BlueMetalXavier, ScaryMary54, Ducky the Insomniac Panda, sweetortonlover86, Jacqueline3005, TroubleBecca123, , CailleachBheirre84, samanyana, spnlife321, valerie678, Misanthropist Wordsmith, Wobulator, RHatch89, SkippingThrough, SunshineBubbles, animefancahanaonargu, Skylar97, Raiko20, Alive-In-Wonderland22, Eruanna6898, BlackRoseAki, tigergirl1723, , Carly Carnations, and grapejuice101._

 _And a huge thank-you to all those who reviewed. I heave read each one multiple times and adore all the kind words you have sent me. Thank you Guest, SunshineBubbles, samanyana, inspibrain101, The Redshirt who Lived, BlackDove WhiteDove, VelmaInkley, I Love Fairytale Endings, The-Pug's-Quill, Starlyrical, Guest, TheLostPevensie, starlineshine, frorals, MissUnderstoodXOXO, and Narutoske._

 _See you all in a flash!_


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